Numbers 35:9–34

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.

¹⁶“ ‘But if he hit him with an object of iron, so that he dies, the killer must surely be put to death. ¹⁷And if he hit him with a stone in the hand, by which he will die, and he does die, he is a killer; the killer must surely be put to death. ¹⁸Or if he hit him with a wooden object, by which he will die, and he does die, he is a killer; the killer must surely be put to death. ¹⁹The blood avenger himself will put the killer to death; he must put him to death when meeting him. ²⁰If he shoves him in hatred, or he throws something at him with intention, and he dies, ²¹or if he hits him in hostility with his hand, and he dies, the one that struck him will put to death the killer when meeting him.

²²“ ‘Or if in an instant he shoved him, not in hostility, or threw something at him without intention, ²³or with any stone, without seeing it dropped on him so that he dies, while he was not seeking his injury, ²⁴then the community will judge between the striker and between the blood avenger according to these ordinances. ²⁵The community will deliver the killer from the hand of the blood avenger, and the community will restore him to the city of his refuge to which he fled; and he will live there in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with holy oil. ²⁶But if the killer surely goes out of the territory of the city of his refuge to which he fled, ²⁷and the blood avenger finds him outside the territory of the city of his refuge, and the blood avenger kills the killer, he will not be guilty of blood^{g 28}because he must live in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the killer will return to the land of his property. ²⁹These things will be as a decree of justice for you for your generations in all your dwellings.

³⁰“ ‘If anyone kills a person, the killer will be put to death according to the testimony^h of witnesses, but someone cannot die on testimony of one person. ³¹Also, you will not take a ransom payment for the life of a killer who is guilty of death; indeed, he must surely be put to death. ³²You will not take a ransom payment for the one that flees to the city of his refuge, so that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest. ³³So you will not pollute the land in which you are; because blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is poured out on it except with the blood of the one who poured it out. ³⁴You will not defile the land on which you are living because I am living in the midst of it; I am Yahweh; I am living in the midst of the Israelites.’ ”ⁱ