Cities for the Levites
35 1 Our Father spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:
2 Command the Israelites to give the Levites, from the inheritance they hold, cities to live in, and pastureland around them, for the Levites. 3 The cities are theirs to live in; the pasturelands are for their cattle, livestock, and all their living creatures.
4 The pasturelands of the cities you give the Levites reach about 1,500 feet out from the city wall on every side. 5 Measure outside the city: about three thousand feet on the east side, three thousand on the south side, three thousand on the west side, three thousand on the north side, with the city in the middle. This is the pastureland for their cities.
6 Of the cities you give the Levites, six shall be cities of refuge, for a killer to flee to; besides these, give forty-two cities.
7 All the cities that you give the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, together with their pasturelands. 8 From Israel's territory, give the Levites cities—more from large tribes, fewer from small; each gives in proportion to the inheritance it received.
Our Father Speaks Again
9 Our Father spoke to Moses:
10 Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 Choose cities for yourselves, cities of refuge, where anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there. 12 These cities are a refuge for you from the blood avenger, so the killer won't die until standing before the assembly for judgment. 13 The cities you give shall be six cities of refuge for you. 14 Give three cities beyond the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. 15 These six cities are a refuge for Israelites, the foreigner, and the temporary resident among them, so anyone who kills a person by accident may flee there.
16 But if someone strikes another with an iron object and the victim dies, the attacker is a murderer — the murderer must be put to death. 17 If he struck him with a stone in his hand that could kill, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. 18 Or if he struck him with a deadly wooden tool in hand, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. 19 The avenger of blood shall kill the murderer himself; when he meets him, he shall kill him. 20 If he pushed him from hatred, or threw something at him in ambush, so he died, 21 Or if he struck him with his hand out of hatred and he died, the striker must be put to death—he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall kill the murderer when he finds him.
22 But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or threw anything at him without ambush, 23 or, without seeing him, dropped on him a stone able to kill, and he died — not his enemy, not seeking his harm 24 —then the assembly shall judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these rules. 25 The assembly must rescue the killer from the blood avenger's hand and return him to the city of refuge he fled to; he must stay there until the high priest anointed with holy oil dies. a a 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 killer ever leaves the border of his refuge city, where he fled, 27 If the avenger of blood finds him outside his city of refuge's border and kills the killer, he incurs no bloodguilt. 28 The killer must stay in his city of refuge until the high priest dies; only after the high priest's death may he return to his own land. 29 These shall be a permanent law for you throughout your generations, in every place where you live.
30 Anyone who kills a person shall be executed as a murderer, on witnesses' testimony; one witness alone cannot testify against a person to cause death.
31 Take no ransom for a murderer's life who deserves death—he must be executed. 32 Take no ransom for someone who fled to his city of refuge, letting him return to live in the land before the priest dies.
33 Don't pollute the land you live in — blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no atonement for blood shed on it except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 Don't make the land unclean—you live there, and I live among you; for I, your Father, live among Israel's people.
