Joshua 20

Then God said to Joshua,

“Tell the Israelite people that they should choose some cities to which people can flee in order to be safe, as I told Moses that you should do.

If someone kills another person accidentally, without intending to kill that person, then he can run to one of these cities and be safe. \*

When that person arrives at the gate of one of those cities, he must stop there and tell the leaders of the city what happened. {If they believe him,} they must allow him to enter the city, and they must give him a place to live among them. \*

Suppose some relative of the dead person comes to that city to try to take revenge by killing the person who fled. The leaders of that city must not allow the relative to take him away and kill him, because what happened was accidental. He did not hate that person in the past.

The person who killed someone must stay in the city where he fled until it holds a trial to decide his case. {If they determine that the killing was accidental,} he must still stay there until the current high priest dies. Then the man may return safely to his own home.” \*

So the Israelites chose several cities where people could flee to be safe. They chose Kedesh in the region of Galilee, in the hill country where the tribe of Naphtali lived. They chose Shechem, in the hill country where the tribe of Ephraim lived. And they chose Kiriath Arba in the hill country where the tribe of Judah lived. (People now call that city Hebron.)

They also chose some cities on the other side of the Jordan River, east of Jericho. They chose Bezer, on elevated land in the wilderness where the tribe of Reuben lived. They chose Ramoth in the region of Gilead, in the land where the tribe of Gad lived. And they chose Golan in the region of Bashan, where the tribe of Manasseh lived. \*

Any Israelite or any foreigner who lived among them who had killed someone accidentally was allowed to flee to one of those cities. There he would be safe from any relative of the dead person who wanted to come and kill him in revenge. He could stay in that city until the people there held a trial to decide whether he was telling the truth when he said that he did not kill that person on purpose. \*