Towns for the Levites

35 The Lord spoke to Moses on the Plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:

² Command the people of Israel to give the Levites cities^[a] to live in from the territory assigned to them as their possession. They will also give the Levites the pasturelands around those cities. ³ The Levites will then have cities to live in. Their pasturelands will be for their cattle, their flocks and herds, and all their other animals.

⁴ The pasturelands of the cities, which you will give to the Levites, will extend out from the wall of the city 500 yards^[b] in all directions. ⁵ As the eastern boundary you will measure 1000 yards^[c] in addition to the size of the city, 1000 yards as the southern boundary, 1000 yards as the western boundary, and 1000 yards as the northern boundary. The city is in the middle. This area will serve as the pasturelands of their cities.

⁶ The cities which you will give to the Levites will include six cities of refuge, which you will provide so that a person who has killed someone may flee there. In addition to these six cities, you will give them forty-two other cities. ⁷ All the cities which you are to give to the Levites will total forty-eight cities along with their pasturelands. ⁸ For the cities which you will transfer to the Levites from the property of the Israelites, you will take more cities from a larger tribe and fewer from a smaller tribe. Every tribe will give some of its cities to the Levites in proportion to the amount of assigned territory it has received.

Cities of Refuge

⁹ The Lord told Moses ¹⁰ to speak to the Israelites and tell them this:

When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ you are to designate some cities to be cities of refuge for yourselves, so that a person who has killed someone by taking someone’s life unintentionally may flee there. ¹² The cities will serve as a refuge for you from the avenger,^[d] so that a person who has killed someone will not die until he stands trial before the community. ¹³ The cities which you will set aside will serve as the six cities of refuge for you. ¹⁴ You are to set aside three cities east of the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan. They will serve as cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities will serve as a refuge for Israelites, for resident aliens, and for temporary residents living among them so that everyone who has taken someone’s life unintentionally may flee there.

¹⁶ But if a person strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, that person is a murderer. The murderer must certainly be put to death. ¹⁷ If a person strikes someone with a stone in his hand that could kill someone, and the victim dies, that person is a murderer. The murderer must certainly be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if a person strikes someone with a wooden object in his hand that could kill someone, and the victim dies, that person is a murderer. The murderer must certainly be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood himself will put the murderer to death. When he apprehends him, he is to put him to death. ²⁰ If a person pushes someone out of hatred or throws something at him with malicious intent so that he dies, ²¹ or in hostility strikes him with his hand so that he dies, that person who struck him must certainly be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death when he apprehends him.

²² But if a person pushes someone suddenly without hostility or throws any object at him without malicious intent, ²³ or if without looking he drops a stone on someone big enough to kill him and that person dies, since that person was not his enemy, and he did not seek to harm him, ²⁴ the community will judge between the killer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. ²⁵ The community will deliver the person who has killed someone from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the community will take him back to his city of refuge, to which he had fled. He must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ But if the person who has killed someone ever goes outside of the border of the city of refuge to which he has fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the person who has killed someone, the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed, ²⁸ because the person who has killed someone should have stayed in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest he may return to the land that is his possession.

²⁹ These things will be a legal statute for you throughout your generations wherever you live.

³⁰ Everyone who has taken someone’s life is to be put to death as a murderer on the testimony of witnesses, but no one is to die on the testimony of only one witness.

³¹ You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, because he must certainly be put to death.

³² You are not to accept a ransom for the one who has fled to a city of refuge in order to allow him to return to live in his land before the death of the priest.

³³ So you are not to pollute the land where you are, because bloodshed pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land where blood has been shed except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ You are not to defile the land in which you are living, where I am dwelling in its midst, for I, the Lord, am dwelling in the midst of the people of Israel.