Numbers 35:6–15

⁶“All the cities that you will give the Levites will be six cities of refuge, to which the killer can flee; in addition to them you will give forty-two cities. ⁷All the cities that you will give to the Levites will be forty-eight cities, them with their pasturelands. ⁸And the cities that you will give from the property of the Israelites,^d you will take more from the larger group and less from the smaller group; each of them will give according to the portion of their inheritance according to the portion that he inherits.”

Cities of Refuge

⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites^e and say to them, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹you will select for yourselves cities for your cities of refuge, that a killer who has killed a person unintentionally can flee there. ¹²The cities will be to you a refuge from a redeemer, so that the killer will not die until he stands before the community for judgment. ¹³The cities that you are to give will be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴You will give three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they will be cities of refuge. ¹⁵To the Israelites,^f to the alien, and to the temporary resident in their midst there will be these six cities as a refuge to which anyone who unintentionally kills a person may flee.