Cities of Refuge

⁶ And the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the ^(A)six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.

^2 (A)you shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to ^[a]possess. ³ You shall prepare the ^[b]roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, ^[c]so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “^(B)Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend ^[d]without premeditation, ^[e]not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[f]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[g]handle and ^[h]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live; ⁶ lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is ^[i]angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ^[j]strike down his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. ⁷ Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “Now if Yahweh your God ^(C)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ^[k]promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ if you ^[l]be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(D)to love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—^(E)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^(F)bloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹ “But ^(G)if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down ^[m]his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him over into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ^13 [n](H)You shall not pity him, but ^(I)you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

⁷ So they ^[a]set apart ^(A)Kedesh in ^[b]Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in ^(B)the hill country of Judah. ⁸ Now beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they ^[c]designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. ^9 (C)These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns among them, that whoever strikes down any person unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation.