Numbers

Forty-Eight Cities for the Levites

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

2“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.

3The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.

4The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubitsfrom the wall on every side.

5You are also to measure two thousand cubitsoutside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.

6Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities.

7The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.

8The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”

Six Cities of Refuge

9Then the LORD said to Moses,

10“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

11designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

12You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

13The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.

14Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.

15These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

16If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

17Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

18If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

19The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

20Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,

21or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.

22But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally,

23or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him,

24then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

25The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

26But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled

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

28because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.

29This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.

30If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

31You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

32Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

34Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”

1And the Lord spoke these things also to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, over against Jericho:

2Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites out of their possessions,

3Cities to dwell in, and their suburbs round about: that they may abide in the towns, and the suburbs may be for their cattle and beasts:

4Which suburbs shall reach from the walls of the cities outward, a thousand paces on every side:

5Toward the east shall be two thousand cubits: and toward the south in like manner shall be two thousand cubits: toward the sea also, which looketh to the west, shall be the same extent: and the north side shall be bounded with the like limits. And the cities shall be in the midst, and the suburbs without.

6And among the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, six shall be separated for refuge to fugitives, that he who hath shed blood may flee to them: and besides these there shall be other forty-two cities,

7That is, in all forty-eight with their suburbs.

8And of these cities which shall be given out of the possessions of the children of Israel, from them that have more, more shall be taken: and from them that have less, fewer. Each shall give towns to the Levites according to the extent of their inheritance.

9The Lord said to Moses:

10Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have passed over the Jordan into the land of Chanaan,

11Determine what cities shall be for the refuge of fugitives, who have shed blood against their will.

12And when the fugitive shall be in them, the kinsman of him that is slain may not have power to kill him, until he stand before the multitude, and his cause be judged.

13And of those cities, that are separated for the refuge of fugitives,

14Three shall be beyond the Jordan, and three in the land of Chanaan,

15As well for the children of Israel as for strangers and sojourners, that he may flee to them, who hath shed blood against his will.

16If any man strike with iron, and he die that was struck: he shall be guilty of murder, and he himself shall die.

17If he throw a stone, and he that is struck die: he shall be punished in the same manner.

18If he that is struck with wood die: he shall be revenged by the blood of him that struck him.

19The kinsman of him that was slain, shall kill the murderer: as soon as he apprehendeth him, he shall kill him.

20If through hatred any one push a man, or fling any thing at him with ill design:

21Or being his enemy, strike; him with his hand, and he die: the striker shall be guilty of murder: the kinsman of him that was slain as soon as he findeth him, shall kill him.

22But if by chance medley, and without hatred,

23And enmity, he do any of these things,

24And this be proved in the hearing of the people, and the cause be debated between him that struck, and the next of kin:

25The innocent shall be delivered from the hand of the revenger, and shall be brought back by sentence into the city, to which he had fled, and he shall abide there until the death of the high priest, that is anointed with the holy oil.

26If the murderer be found without the limits of the cities that are appointed for the banished,

27And be struck by him that is the avenger of blood: he shall not be guilty that killed him.

28For the fugitive ought to have stayed in the city until the death of the high priest: and after he is dead, then shall the manslayer return to his own country.

29These things shall be perpetual, and for an ordinance in all your dwellings.

30The murderer shall be punished by witnesses: none shall be condemned upon the evidence of one man.

31You shall not take money of him that is guilty of blood, but he shall die forthwith.

32The banished and fugitives before the death of the high priest may by no means return into their own cities.

33Defile not the land of your habitation, which is stained with the blood of the innocent: neither can it otherwise be expiated, but by his blood that hath shed the blood of another.

34And thus shall your possession he cleansed, myself abiding with you. For I am the Lord that dwell among the children of Israel.