Joshua 20

1 And he spoke Yahweh to Joshua saying.

Then Yahweh said to Joshua,

2 Speak to [the] people of Israel saying assign for yourselves [the] cities of refuge which I spoke to you by [the] hand of Moses.

“Tell the Israeli people that they should choose some cities to which people [can run] in order to be safe/protected, like I told Moses that they should do.

3 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.

If someone kills another person accidentally, not intending to kill that person, the one who killed that person may run/escape to one of these cities and be safe/protected from someone trying to get revenge for that person’s death [MTY].

4 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.

When the one who killed someone arrives at the gate of one of those cities, he must stop there and tell the leaders of the city what happened. [If they believe him], they must allow him to enter the city, and they must give him a place to live among them.

5 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.

If some relative of the one who was killed comes to that city to get revenge, the leaders of that city must not allow the relative to take the killer, because what happened was accidental. He did not hate that person and as a result deliberately kill him.

6 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.

But the person who killed someone must stay in that city until the city judges put him on trial. [Only if the judges decide that the person who has run/escaped to their city did not deliberately kill the other person will they allow him to stay in that city], and he must stay there until the Supreme Priest dies. Then he may safely go back to his own town, [because the death of the Supreme Priest will be considered to atone/pay for the death of the person who was killed].”

7 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.

So the Israelis chose these cities to be cities to which people could run to be safe/protected: Kedesh in the Galilee district in the hilly area where the tribe of Naphtali lived; Shechem in the hilly area where the tribe of Ephraim lived; Kiriath-Arba (which is [now named] Hebron) in the hilly area where the tribe of Judah lived;

8 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.

Bezer, on the east side of the Jordan [River] near Jericho, in the flat land in the desert where the tribe of Reuben lived; Ramoth in the Gilead [region] in the land where the tribe of Gad lived; and Golan in the Bashan region where the tribe of Manasseh lived.

9 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.

Any Israeli or any foreigner who lived among us, anyone who killed someone (accidentally/without planning to do it), was allowed to run to one of those cities, and be safe/protected from some relative of the person who died coming there and killing him to get revenge. He could stay in that city until there was a trial there [to decide whether he was telling the truth or not when he said that he did not plan to kill that person].