Six Cities of Refuge
(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 4:41–43; Deuteronomy 19:1–14)

1And Jehovah will speak to Joshua, saying, 2Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Ye shall give to yourselves cities of refuge which I spake to you by the hand of Moses: 3For the slayer smiting a soul in mistake and without knowledge, to flee there: and they shall be to you for refuge from the nearest kinsman of blood. 4And he fled to one of these cities and stood at the door of the gate of the city, and spake in the ears of the old men of that city, his words, and they received him into the city to them, and they gave to him a place, and he dwelt with them. 5And if the nearest relation of blood shall pursue after him, and they shall not deliver over the slayer into his hand; for without knowing he smote his friend, and he hated him not from yesterday the third day. 6And he shall dwell in that city till his standing before the assembly for judgment, till the death of the great priest which shall be in those days: then the slayer shall turn back and come to his city and to his house, to the city which he fled from there.

7And they will consecrate Kadesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and the city of Arba (this in Hebron) in mount Judah. 8And from beyond Jordan of Jericho from the sunrising, they gave Bezer in the desert in the plain from the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth, in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad; and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. 9These were cities of appointment for all the sons of Israel, and for the stranger sojourning in the midst of them, to flee there, every one smiting a soul in mistake: and he shall not die by the hand of the nearest relation of blood till his standing before the assembly.