Joshua 20

20:1And the lord spoke to Joshua, saying,

20:2Speak to the sons of Israel! saying, Appoint to you the cities of the places of refuge! which I spoke to you through Moses,

20:3for a place of refuge to the manslayer, to the one striking a life unintentionally without forethought. And the cities shall be to you a place of refuge, and the manslayer shall not die by the one acting as next of kin for blood.

20:4And he shall flee to one of these cities, and shall stay at the door of the gate of his city, and shall speak in the ears of the elders of that city concerning his words. And the congregation shall return him to them, and they shall appoint to him a place, and he shall dwell with them.

20:5And when the one acting as next of kin for blood should pursue after him, that they shall not consign the one manslaying into his hand, for not knowing he struck his neighbor, and he himself was not disliking him from yesterday, and the third day before.

20:6And he shall dwell in that city, until he should stand in front of the congregation for judgment, until the great priest should die, who shall be in those days. Then the man-slayer shall return, and shall come unto his city, and to his house, even to the city from where he fled from there.

20:7And he separated Kadesh in Galilee, in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and the city Arba (this is Hebron) in the mountain of Judah.

20:8And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho from the east, he gave Bezer in the wilderness on the plain of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in the Bashan area of the tribe of Manasseh.

20:9These were the cities selected to all sons of Israel, and to the foreigner, to the one lying near among them, to take refuge there, to any one unintentionally hitting a soul, that he should not die by the hand of the one acting as next of kin for blood, until whenever he should be placed before the congregation for judgment.