1The LORD also spoke unto Joshua, saying, 2Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Assign {Appoint out for} you cities of refuge, whereof I spoke unto you by the hand of Moses, 3That the slayer who killeth any person unintentionally {unawares} and without premeditation {unwittingly} may flee there {thither}; and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. 4And when he who doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entrance {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. 5And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand, because he smote his neighbor without premeditation {unwittingly}, and hated him not beforehand {beforetime}. 6And 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 where he fled.

7And they assigned {appointed} Kedesh in Galilee in Mount Naphtali, and Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. 8And on the other side of the 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. 9These were the cities assigned {appointed} for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person without intent {at unawares} might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.