1 The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying,
2 Speak
to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge,
whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:
3 That
the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly
may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
4 And
when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of
the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of
that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place,
that he may dwell among them.
5 And
if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the
slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated
him not beforetime.
6 And
he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for
judgment, and until
the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer
return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from
whence he fled.
7 And
they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount
Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
8 And
on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the
wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out
of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
9 These
were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger
that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person
at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of
blood, until he stood before the congregation.
