Numbers 35

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho:

² “Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in, from the inheritance they possess. Give the Levites pastureland around those towns.

³ The towns will be for them to live in, and the pastureland will be for their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals.

⁴ The pastureland around the towns you give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits outward from the town wall, all around.

⁵ Outside the town, measure two thousand cubits on the east side, two thousand cubits on the south side, two thousand cubits on the west side, and two thousand cubits on the north side, with the town in the middle. This pastureland will belong to their towns.

⁶ Among the towns you give the Levites will be the six cities of refuge, which you will designate for a killer to flee to. In addition to these, give them forty-two towns.

⁷ All the towns you give the Levites will number forty-eight, together with their pastureland.

⁸ As for the towns you give from the Israelites’ holdings: take many from those who have much, and few from those who have little. Each person will give towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance he receives.”

⁹ The LORD spoke to Moses:

¹⁰ “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘You are about to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan.

¹¹ Choose towns for yourselves to serve as cities of refuge, so that a killer who has unintentionally killed someone may flee there.’”

¹² “‘These towns will be a refuge for you from the avenger, so that the killer will not die before standing before the community for judgment.

¹³ Of the towns you give, six will be cities of refuge for you.

¹⁴ Give three cities across the Jordan, and give three cities in the land of Canaan. They will be cities of refuge.

¹⁵ These six cities will be a refuge for the Israelites, for the foreigner living among them, and for the temporary resident among them, so that anyone who unintentionally kills someone may flee there.

¹⁶ If someone strikes another with an iron object and he dies, that person is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁷ If someone strikes another with a stone held in the hand, capable of causing death, and he dies, that person is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁸ Or if someone strikes another with a wooden object held in the hand, capable of causing death, and he dies, that person is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁹ The avenger of blood will put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he will kill him.

²⁰ If someone pushes another out of hatred, or deliberately throws something at him and he dies,

²¹ or strikes him with his hand out of hostility and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death. He is a murderer. When the avenger of blood meets the murderer, he will kill him.

²² But if someone suddenly pushes another without hostility, or throws any object at him unintentionally,

²³ or, without seeing him, drops on him a stone capable of causing death, and he dies, though he was not his enemy and was not seeking to harm him,’”

²⁴ “‘then the community will judge between the one who struck him and the avenger of blood according to these rules.

²⁵ The community will rescue the killer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community will return him to the city of refuge he fled to. He must stay there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ But if the killer ever goes beyond the boundaries of the city of refuge he fled to,

²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the boundaries of his city of refuge and kills him, the avenger of blood will not be guilty of bloodshed.

²⁸ For the killer must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. After the high priest dies, the killer may return to the land he owns.

²⁹ These rules will be a binding statute for you throughout your generations, wherever you live.

³⁰ Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death on the testimony of witnesses, but one witness alone cannot testify against a person to have him put to death.

³¹ You must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer guilty of a capital crime; he must surely be put to death.

³² You must not accept a ransom from someone who has fled to a city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the priest dies.

³³ Do not defile the land where you live, because blood defiles the land. No atonement can be made for the land for blood shed in it except by the blood of the one who shed it.

³⁴ Do not defile the land where you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.’”

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