Numbers 35

1Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying,

2Command the children of Israel that they give the Levites cities from the inheritance of their possession to dwell in, and you shall give pasturelands around those cities to the Levites.

3The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle, their possessions, and all their living creatures.

4The pasturelands of the cities that you give to the Levites shall extend from the city wall outward one thousand cubits all around.

5Measure two thousand cubits outside the city along the east side, two thousand cubits along the south side, two thousand cubits along the west side, and two thousand cubits along the north side, the city positioned in the center. This shall be to them the pasturelands of the cities.

6The cities you give to the Levites shall include six cities of refuge, which you give for the slayer to flee there, and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

7All the cities that you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities with their pasturelands.

8The cities you give from the sons of Israel's possession—from those who have many you shall take many, and from those who have few you shall take few—each according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give from his cities to the Levites.

9Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

10Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

11You shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for yourselves, so that the slayer who strikes a person unintentionally may flee there.

12The cities will be refuges for you from the avenger, so the manslayer does not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

13The cities you give shall be six cities of refuge for you.

14You shall appoint three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall appoint three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.

15These six cities shall be a refuge for the sons of Israel, the sojourner, and the resident alien among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

16But if he struck him with an iron implement and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.

17If he struck him with a handheld stone by which one may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely die.

18Or if he struck him with a wooden implement in his hand, by which one may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.

19The blood avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; when he encounters him, he shall put him to death.

20But if he thrust him out of hatred, or hurled at him while lying in wait, and he died,

21Or if in enmity he struck him with his hand, so that he died, the striker shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he encounters him.

22But if he shoves him suddenly without enmity, or hurls any object at him without lying in wait,

23Or if he hurls any stone upon him by which a man may die, without seeing him, so that it falls on him and he dies, though he was not his enemy and did not seek his harm.

24The assembly shall judge between the striker and the blood avenger according to these judgments.

25The congregation shall rescue the slayer from the blood avenger's hand and return him to his refuge city where he fled, and he shall dwell there until the death of the high priest anointed with holy oil.

26But if the manslayer ever goes beyond the border of his city of refuge, to which he flees,

27and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his refuge city, and the avenger of blood slays the slayer; no blood falls on him.

28Because he shall dwell in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest, and after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return to the land of his possession.

29These shall be a statute of judgment for you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

30Whoever kills any person—the murderer—shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses, but one witness shall not testify against any person so he dies.

31You shall not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is condemned to die; for he shall surely be put to death.

32You shall not take ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, to return and dwell in the land until the priest's death.

33Do not defile the land in which you dwell, for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land because of the blood shed in it except by the blood of its shedder.

34Do not defile the land in which you dwell, in whose midst I dwell, for I, Yahweh, dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel.