Joshua 20

1 YHWH spoke to Joshua, saying,

Then the Lord told Joshua,

2 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,

“Tell the Israelites, ‘Assign sanctuary towns, as I instructed you through Moses.

3 that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.

Then any man who kills somebody by accident, unintentionally, can run there and they will be protected from those who wish to take revenge.

4 He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them.

When he gets to one of these towns, he shall state his case to the elders at the town gates. They must allow him to enter, and they will also arrange a place for him to stay.

5 If the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver up the manslayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and did not hate him before.

If the one seeking revenge comes looking for the man, they must not hand the one who committed manslaughter over to him, because he killed someone unintentionally and without deliberate hatred.

6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the manslayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.'"

He shall remain in that town until he has received a public trial and a verdict has been given, and until the death of the high priest of the time. Then he is free to return to his home, back to the town from where he ran away.’”

7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

So they assigned the following sanctuary towns: Kedesh of Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali; Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim; and Kiriath-arba (or Hebron), in the hill country of Judah.

8 Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer on the wilderness plateau out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

On the other side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, they assigned: Bezer, in the wilderness on the plateau, from the tribe of Reuben; 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 children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands before the congregation.

These were the assigned towns for all the Israelites, as well as for the foreigners living among them. Anyone who unintentionally killed someone could go there so they would not be killed by those who wished to take revenge before they had received a public trial and been given a guilty verdict.