¹ And Yahweh spake unto Joshua, saying:

² Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying,—Set out for you the cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you, by the hand of Moses:

³ that the manslayer who slayeth a person by mistake, unwittingly, may flee thither,—so shall they be unto you for refuge from the blood-redeemer,

⁴ and he shall flee unto one of these cities and present himself at the entrance of the gate of the city, and shall speak, in the ears of the elders of that city, his defence,—and they shall take him for protection into the city unto them, and shall give him a place, so shall he dwell with them.

⁵ And, when the blood-redeemer pursueth after him, then shall they not deliver up the manslayer, into his hand,—because, unwittingly, it was that he slew his neighbour, and had not been, cherishing hatred, towards him, aforetime;

⁶ so shall he remain in that city, until he standeth before the assembly, for judgment, until the death of the high-priest who shall be in those days,—then, shall the manslayer return, and enter into his own city, and into his own house, within the city from whence he fled.

⁷ So then they set apart Kadesh in Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba, the same, is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah.

⁸ And, beyond the Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness, in the table-land, out of the tribe of Reuben,—and Ramoth in Gilead, out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, out of the tribe of Manasseh.

⁹ These, were the cities appointed for all the sons of Israel, and for the sojourner who sojourneth in their midst, that whosoever should slay a person by mistake, might flee thither,—and not die by the hand of the blood-redeemer, until he should stand before the assembly.