< Joshua 20 >
1 And the Lord said to Joshua,
And he spoke Yahweh to Joshua saying.
2 Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses,
Speak to [the] people of Israel saying assign for yourselves [the] cities of refuge which I spoke to you by [the] hand of Moses.
3 So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood.
To flee there towards a killer [who] strikes down a person by inadvertence with not knowledge and they will become for you a refuge from [the] avenger of blood.
4 And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause before the responsible men of the town, they will take him into the town and give him a place among them where he may be safe.
And he will flee to one - of the cities these and he will stand [the] entrance of [the] gate of the city and he will speak in [the] ears of ([the] elders of the city *LA(bh)*) that words his and they will gather him the city towards to themselves and they will give to him a place and he will dwell with them.
5 And if the one who has the right of punishment comes after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him; because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without designing it and not in hate.
And if he will pursue [the] avenger of blood after him and not they will deliver up the killer in hand his for with not knowledge he struck neighbor his and not [was] hating he him from yesterday [the] third day.
6 And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death of him who is high priest at that time: ) then the taker of life may come back to his town and to his house, to the town from which he had gone in flight.
And he will dwell - in the city that until stands he before the congregation for judgment until [the] death of the priest great who he will be in the days those then - he will return the killer and he will go to own city his and to own house his to the city where he fled from there.
7 So they made selection of Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah.
And 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 And on the east side of Jordan at Jericho, they made selection of Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
And from [the] other side of [the] Jordan of Jericho east-ward they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain from [the] tribe of Reuben and Ramoth in Gilead from [the] tribe of Gad and (Golan *Q(K)*) in Bashan from [the] tribe of Manasseh.
9 These were the towns marked out for all the children of Israel and for the man from a strange country living among them, so that anyone causing the death of another in error, might go in flight there, and not be put to death by him who has the right of punishment for blood till he had come before the meeting of the people.
These they were [the] cities of appointing for all - [the] people of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns in midst of them to flee there towards any [one who] strikes down a person by inadvertence and not he will die by [the] hand of [the] avenger of blood until stands he before the congregation.