Joshua 20
The Cities of Refuge
Appointed |
1 |
The LORD also spake
unto Joshua, saying,
|
2 |
Speak to the children of Israel, saying,
Appoint out for you cities of refuge, Num. 35.6-32 · Deut. 4.41-43 ; 19.1-13 whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:
|
3 |
that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they
shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
|
4 |
And 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.
|
5 |
And if the avenger of blood pursue after
him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand;
because he smote his neighbor unwittingly, and hated him not
beforetime.
|
6 |
And 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.
|
7 |
And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in
mount Naph'tali, and Shechem in mount E'phra-im, and Kir'jath-ar'ba,
which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
|
8 |
And 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 Gil'e-ad out of the tribe of
Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manas'seh.
|
9 |
These 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.
|