Joshua 20
Open in the reader1Then He-Who-Is said to He-Who-Is-Saves,
2“Tell the children of Strives-with-God to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Drawn-Out,
3so that anyone who kills another unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
4When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before its elders, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them.
5Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not surrender the manslayer into his hand, because that man killed his neighbor accidentally without prior malice.
6He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest serving at that time. Then the manslayer may return to his own home in the city from which he fled.”
7So they set apart Devoted-Place in The-Circuit in the hill country of My-Wrestling, Shoulder in the hill country of Double-Fruit, and City-of-Four (that is, Association) in the hill country of Praised.
8And beyond the Descender, east of Moon, they designated Stronghold on the wilderness plateau from the tribe of See-a-Son, Heights in Heap-of-Witness from the tribe of Fortune, and Exile in Fertile-Plain from the tribe of Causing-to-Forget.
9These are the cities appointed for all the children of Strives-with-God and foreigners among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly.