GOD spoke to Moses in the steppes of Moab at the Jordan near Jericho, saying:
Instruct the Israelite people to assign, out of the holdings apportioned to them, towns for the Levites to dwell in; you shall also assign to the Levites pasture land around their towns.
The towns shall be theirs to dwell in, and the pasture shall be for the cattle they own and all their other animals.
The town pasture that you are to assign to the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits outside the town wall all around.
You shall measure off two thousand cubits outside the town on the east side, two thousand on the south side, two thousand on the west side, and two thousand on the north side, with the town in the center. That shall be the pasture for their towns.
The towns that you assign to the Levites shall comprise the six cities of refuge that you are to designate for a manslayer to flee to,amanslayer to flee to I.e., regardless of the victim’s gender. As for a female culprit, the case may have been more complex. to which you shall add forty-two towns.
Thus the total of the towns that you assign to the Levites shall be forty-eight towns, with their pasture.
In assigning towns from the holdings of the Israelites, take more from the larger groups and less from the smaller, so that each assigns towns to the Levites in proportion to the share it receives.
GOD spoke further to Moses:
Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
you shall provide yourselves with places to serve you as cities of refuge to which a manslayer who has slain a person unintentionally may flee.bmanslayer … may flee See note at v. 6.
The cities shall serve you as a refuge from the avenger,cavenger Lit. “redeemer,” i.e., (male) next of kin; cf. note at Lev. 25.25. so that the manslayer may not die unless there is a trial before the assembly.
The towns that you thus assign shall be six cities of refuge in all.
Three cities shall be designated beyond the Jordan, and the other three shall be designated in the land of Canaan: they shall serve as cities of refuge.
These six cities shall serve the Israelites and the resident aliens among them for refuge, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
Anyone, however, who strikes another with an iron object so that death results is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
If one struck another with a stone tooldstone tool Lit. “stone of the hand.” that could cause death, and death resulted, that person is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
Similarly, if one struck another with a wooden toolewooden tool Lit. “wood of the hand.” that could cause death, and death resulted, that person is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
It is the blood-avenger who shall put the murderer to death; that is who shall put them to death upon encounter.
So, too, if one pushed another in hate or hurled something at them on purpose and death resulted,
or if one struck with their hand in enmity and death resulted, the assailant shall be put to death; that person is a murderer. The blood-avenger shall put the murderer to death upon encounter.
But if the person pushed them without malice aforethought or hurled any object at them unintentionally,
or inadvertentlyfinadvertently Lit. “without seeing.” dropped upon them any deadly object of stone, and death resulted—though not being an enemy and not seeking to harm—
in such cases the assembly shall decide between the slayer and the blood-avenger.
The assembly shall protect the manslayer from the blood-avenger, and the assembly shall restore the former to the same city of refuge,gthe same city of refuge Heb. “the city of refuge that he fled thereto.” and there he shall remain until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the sacred oil.
But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of that city of refuge,hthat city of refuge See note at v. 25.
and is found by the blood-avenger outside the limits of the city of refuge, and if the blood-avenger kills the manslayer, there is no bloodguilt on that account.
For the slayer must remain inside the city of refuge until the death of the high priest; after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may return home.ihome Lit. “to his holding land.”
Such shall be your law of procedure throughout the ages in all your settlements.
If anyone slays a person, the manslayer may be executed only on the evidence of witnesses; the testimony of a single witness against a person shall not suffice for a sentence of death.
You may not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of a capital crime; [a murderer] must be put to death.
Nor may you accept ransom in lieu of flight to a city of refuge, enabling someone to return homejhome Lit. “to dwell on the land.” before the death of the priest.
You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I GOD abide among the Israelite people.