Joshua 20 Cities of refuge established

Joshua 20

Cities of refuge established



1 The Lord spoke to Joshua, saying,

2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Depart for you the cities of refuge, which I told you about through the ministry of Moses:

3 That the murderer may flee there, that he may kill someone by mistake, and not with intent: that they may be a refuge for you from the avenger of blood.

4 And fleeing to some of those cities, he will put himself at the city gate, and he will propose his words before the ears of the elders of that city: then they will take him with him in the city: and give him a place to live with them.

5 And if the avenger of blood follows him, they will not deliver the murderer into his hand: because he did not intentionally strike his neighbor, and did not bore him before.

6 And he will dwell in the same city, until judgment is brought before the congregation, until the high priest who was in those days dies: then the murderer will return, and will come to his city, and to his house, to the city from which he fled.

7 Then they separated Kedesh in Galilee, on the mountain of Naphtali, and Shechem on the mountain of Ephraim, and Kiriath-Arba, this is Hebron on the mountain of Judah.

8 And beyond the Jordan of Jericho to the east, they separated Beser in the desert, in the meadow of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead of the tribe of Gad, and the Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

9 These are the cities that have been designated for all the children of Israel, and for the foreigner who walks among them; so that anyone who hurt someone by mistake would be welcomed to them: lest he die at the hands of the blood avenger, until he stood before the congregation.