Numbers 35

35 ¹ Our Father spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:

Pastureland and Provision

² "Command the people of Israel to give the Levites, out of the inheritance they possess, cities to live in; and you shall give the Levites pasturelands around the cities. ³ The cities shall be theirs to live in, and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle, their livestock, and all their animals.

⁴ The pasturelands of the cities that you give the Levites shall reach from the wall of the city outward about fifteen hundred feet all around. ⁵ You shall measure outside the city on the east side about three thousand feet, on the south side three thousand feet, on the west side three thousand feet, and on the north side three thousand feet, with the city in the middle. This shall be their cities' pastureland.

⁶ The cities that you give the Levites shall include the six cities of refuge, where anyone who has killed someone may flee for safety, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.

Six Cities of Refuge

⁷ All the cities that you give the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, together with their pasturelands. ⁸ As for the cities you give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes take many and from the smaller take few; each shall give some of its cities to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance it receives."

Our Father Speaks Again

⁹ Our Father spoke to Moses:

Sanctuary for the Unintentional

¹⁰ "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ you shall select for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there. ¹² These cities shall be a refuge for you from the avenger, so that the one who killed does not die until he stands trial before the assembly. ¹³ The cities you give shall be six cities of refuge for you. ¹⁴ You shall provide three cities beyond the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be a refuge for the people of Israel, and for the foreigner and the temporary resident among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

¹⁶ But if he struck him with an iron object so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ And if he struck him with a stone in his hand that could kill, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he struck him with a wooden object in his hand that could kill, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰ And if out of hatred he pushed him, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹ or out of hatred struck him with his hand so that he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

²² But if he pushed him suddenly without any hostility, or hurled any object at him without lying in wait, ²³ or, without seeing him, dropped on him a stone large enough to kill, so that he died — though he was not his enemy and meant him no harm — ²⁴ then the assembly shall judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these rules. ²⁵ The assembly shall rescue the one who killed from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the assembly shall return him to the city of refuge to which he had fled; and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. ¹ 1 v25 The exiled person goes free only when the high priest dies — a death that releases the guilty. Jesus, our great high priest, secures our freedom by his own death.

²⁶ But if the one who killed ever goes beyond the border of the city of refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the one who killed, he shall not be guilty of bloodshed. ²⁸ For the one who killed must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest he may return to the land of his possession. ²⁹ These shall be a permanent law for you throughout your generations, in every place where you live.

³⁰ Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but no single witness shall testify against a person to put him to death.

³¹ You shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he shall surely be put to death. ³² And you shall accept no ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the death of the priest.

³³ You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood shed in it except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I, your Father, dwell among the people of Israel.