Joshua 20

Cities of Refuge

20:1-9^Ref — Nu 35:9–34; Dt 4:41–43; 19:1–14

Then the Lord said to Joshua: “Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally^a may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.^b When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate^c and state their case before the elders^d of that city. Then the elders are to admit them into their city and give them a place to live with them. If the avenger of blood pursues them, the elders must not surrender the accused, because they killed their neighbor unintentionally and without malice aforethought. They are to stay in that city until they have stood trial before the assembly^e and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time. Then they may go back to their own home in the town from which they fled.”

So they set apart Kedesh^f in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem^g in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba^h (that is, Hebronⁱ) in the hill country of Judah.^j East of the Jordan (on the other side from Jericho) they designated Bezer^k in the wilderness on the plateau in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead^lm in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashanⁿ in the tribe of Manasseh. Any of the Israelites or any foreigner residing among them who killed someone accidentally^o could flee to these designated cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly.^p