Five cities of refuge
20
📚Then the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, 2 📚“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Set apart for yourselves cities of refuge, about which I spoke to you through Moses, 3 so that a man who kills another person, striking him unintentionally, unwittingly, may flee there; and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. 4 📚“And when the one who flees to one of those cities stands at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declares his case in the hearing of the elders of that city, they shall let him come to them inside the city and give him a place to stay, so that he can live among them. 5 📚And if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not hand the one who killed the other over to them, because he struck his neighbour unwittingly, and did not hate him previously.
20:4-5 In addition to the regulations given to Moses, there are here laid down the responsibilities of the city elders. A person who fled to a city of refuge had to respect their position, and the elders should be people of discernment who upheld justice. Trials were not to be held in secret but before the assembly.⚜
6 📚And he is to live in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest who will be in those days. Afterwards the man who killed the other shall return to his own city and to his own house, to the city that he fled from”.
7 📚And they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron, in the mountains of Judah. 8 📚And on the other side of the Jordan near Jericho on the east, from the tribe of Reuben, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness on the plain, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. 9 📚These were the cities set apart for all the children of Israel and for the foreigners living among them, so that whoever kills a person unintentionally might flee there, and remain until he stands before the congregation, and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood.
20:1-9 See note on cities of refuge at Num 35:9-32.⚜