Joshua 20

The LORD also spoke to Joshua. He said:

1The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying,

2"Tell the people of Israel this: choose the cities of refuge, the safe cities I told you about through Moses.

2Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:

NoteThe cities of refuge were six towns set aside in advance as places where a person who had killed someone accidentally could be safe from the dead person's family. The instructions Joshua is being reminded of are in Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19.

3Anyone who kills another person by accident, without meaning to, can run to one of them. These cities will be a safe place for you, away from the relative who comes to avenge the death.

3That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

NoteThe "avenger of blood" (Hebrew *go'el ha-dam*, "redeemer of blood") was not a private vigilante but the nearest male relative of the person killed, who carried a recognized family duty to pursue the killer. The same word *go'el* is used for the relative who buys back family land or frees a relative from debt. The refuge cities did not abolish this role; they interrupted it long enough for a case to be heard.

4When a man runs to one of those cities, he is to stand at the entrance of the city gate and explain his case out loud to the leaders of that city. Then they are to take him into the city with them and give him a place to live among them.

4And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the 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.

NoteThe gateway of a walled town was its public square: a covered space with benches where business was transacted and legal disputes were settled in the open. The "elders" were the heads of the town's leading families, who acted as its judges. Standing at the gate and stating his case is the formal act of applying for asylum, not casual conversation.

5If the relative who comes to avenge the death chases him, they must not hand the man over to him. He struck down his neighbor without meaning to, and he had not hated him before this happened.

5And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.

6He is to live in that city until he has stood trial before the assembly of the people, and until the death of the man who is high priest at that time. Then he may go back to his own town and his own house, the town he ran away from."

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 whence he fled.

NoteTwo separate things had to happen. First, a trial before "the assembly", the community court, which decided whether the killing really was accidental or was in fact murder. If it was murder, the refuge city gave him no protection. Second, even after being cleared, he had to stay inside the city until the serving high priest died; only then could he go home safely. The high priest was the chief religious official of the whole nation, and his death marked the end of an era in a way that released those confined in the refuge cities.

7So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali; Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim; and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah.

7And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.

Note"Hill country" is the central mountain ridge running north to south through the land; each tribe's stretch of it is named after that tribe. Kirjath-arba means "town of Arba," its older Canaanite name; Hebron was the name in use later. These three cities are west of the Jordan River and roughly evenly spaced north, center, and south, so that no one was more than about a day's journey from one.

8East of the Jordan River, across from Jericho, they chose Bezer out in the wilderness on the flat highland, from the tribe of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad; and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh.

8And on the other side 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.

NoteThese three are on the east bank of the Jordan, where two and a half tribes had settled. "The flat highland" translates Hebrew *mishor*, the level tableland east of the Dead Sea. Gilead is the hilly region east of the Jordan's middle stretch; Bashan is the fertile plateau further north, east of the Sea of Galilee.

9These were the cities chosen for all the people of Israel, and for any foreigner living among them. Anyone who killed a person by accident could run there and not be put to death by the avenging relative before standing trial before the assembly.

9These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

Note"Foreigner living among them" translates a word for a resident outsider, someone of non-Israelite origin who had settled permanently in the land rather than a traveler passing through. The point being made is that the protection covered them on the same terms as Israelites.