Joshua 20

1Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,

2Speak to the Israelites, saying, "Designate for yourselves the cities of refuge that I spoke to you about through Moses."

3so that a slayer who strikes any person by mistake, without knowledge, may flee there; they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

4He flees to one of those cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and declares his matter in the hearing of that city's elders. They bring him into the city with them and give him a place, so he dwells among them.

5If the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand, because without knowledge he struck his neighbor and did not hate him previously.

6He will live in that city until he stands before the assembly for judgment, until the death of the high priest who will be in those days. Then the slayer will return and come to his city and his house, to the city from which he fled.

7They consecrated 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.

8Across the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

9These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and the sojourner residing among them, that anyone striking a person unintentionally might flee there and not die by the hand of the blood avenger until he stands before the assembly.