Joshua
20
- Then the LORD said to Joshua:
- "Tell the Israelites to designate the
cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,
- so that anyone who kills a person accidentally
and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of
blood.
- "When he flees to one of these cities,
he is to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state his case before
the elders of that city. Then they are to admit him into their city and give
him a place to live with them.
- If the avenger of blood pursues him, they
must not surrender the one accused, because he killed his neighbor unintentionally
and without malice aforethought.
- He is to stay in that city until he has
stood trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest who
is serving at that time. Then he may go back to his own home in the town from
which he fled."
- So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the
hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath
Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.
- On the east side of the Jordan of Jericho
they designated Bezer in the desert on the plateau in the tribe of Reuben,
Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of
Manasseh.
- Any of the Israelites or any alien living
among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated
cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before
the assembly.
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