1 Y ahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,

The Lord said to Joshua,

2 “ Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,

“Say to the people of Israel, ‘Choose the cities where you may go and be safe when you are in trouble, as I said to you through Moses.

3 t hat the man slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.

So the man who kills any person without meaning to or planning to may run to one of these cities. They will be places where you can go to be safe from the one who wants to punish you for the killing.

4 H e shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them.

He will run to one of these cities and stand at the city gate. There he will tell his story to the leaders of that city. They will take him into the city and give him a place. So he may live among them.

5 I f the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver up the man slayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before.

If the one who wants to punish him comes after him, they will not give him the one who killed the person, because he killed his neighbor without planning to, and did not hate him in the past.

6 H e shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the man slayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’”

He will live in that city until he has been tried in front of the people. And he will live there until the death of the one who is the head religious leader at the time. Then the one who killed the person may return to his own city and his own house, to the city he ran away from.’”

7 T hey set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali. They set apart Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim. And they set apart Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

8 B eyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

On the other side of the Jordan east of Jericho, they set apart Bezer in the desert plain from the family of Reuben. They set apart Ramoth in Gilead from the family of Gad. And they set apart Golan in Bashan from the family of Manasseh.

9 T hese were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands trial before the congregation.

These were the chosen cities for all the people of Israel and for the stranger staying among them. So whoever killed any person without meaning to could run there. He could not be killed by the one who wanted to punish him, before standing trial in front of the people.