Numbers 35

¹Numbers 35:1. Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:²Numbers 35:2. “Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.³Numbers 35:3. The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.⁴Numbers 35:4. The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side.⁵Numbers 35:5. You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside 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.⁶Numbers 35:6. Six 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.⁷Numbers 35:7. The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.⁸Numbers 35:8. The 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.”

⁹Numbers 35:9. Then the LORD said to Moses,¹⁰Numbers 35:10. “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,¹¹Numbers 35:11. designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.¹²Numbers 35:12. You 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.¹³Numbers 35:13. The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.¹⁴Numbers 35:14. Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.¹⁵Numbers 35:15. These 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.¹⁶Numbers 35:16. If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.¹⁷Numbers 35:17. Or 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.¹⁸Numbers 35:18. If 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.¹⁹Numbers 35:19. The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.²⁰Numbers 35:20. Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,²¹Numbers 35:21. or 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.²²Numbers 35:22. But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally,²³Numbers 35:23. or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him,²⁴Numbers 35:24. then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.²⁵Numbers 35:25. The 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.²⁶Numbers 35:26. But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled²⁷Numbers 35:27. and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed,²⁸Numbers 35:28. because 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.²⁹Numbers 35:29. This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.³⁰Numbers 35:30. If 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.³¹Numbers 35:31. You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.³²Numbers 35:32. Nor 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.³³Numbers 35:33. Do 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.³⁴Numbers 35:34. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”