Numbers 35

Cities for the Levites

¹The LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. He said, ²“Command the Israelites to give the Levites cities to live in, out of the land they will hold as their inheritance. Give the Levites pastureland around the cities as well. ³They will live in the cities and use the pasturelands for their cattle, their livestock and all their other animals. ⁴The pastureland of the cities you give to the Levites is to reach out from the city wall about 1,500 feet in every direction. ⁵Measure outside the city about 3,000 feet on the east side, about 3,000 feet on the south side, about 3,000 feet on the west side and about 3,000 feet on the north side, with the city in the middle. This will be the pastureland of their cities.^{a 6}Among the cities you give the Levites are to be the six cities of refuge, which you are to provide so that anyone who has killed someone can flee there. In addition to these, give them forty-two other cities. ⁷In all, you are to give the Levites forty-eight cities, together with their pasturelands. ⁸The cities you give from the land the Israelites hold are to be taken in proportion: more from a large tribe and fewer from a small one. Each tribe is to give some of its cities to the Levites according to the size of the inheritance it receives.”

Cities of refuge

⁹The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹choose cities to be your cities of refuge, so that anyone who kills a person by mistake can flee there. ¹²The cities will be a refuge for you from the avenger, so that one who has killed someone does not die before standing trial before the congregation. ¹³You are to provide six cities in all as cities of refuge. ¹⁴Provide three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan. They are to be cities of refuge. ¹⁵These six cities will be a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigners and temporary residents who live among them, so that anyone who kills a person by mistake can flee there. ¹⁶But if someone strikes another person with an iron object and that person dies, the one who struck is a murderer. The murderer must be put to death. ¹⁷If someone strikes another person with a stone in the hand that could kill, and that person dies, the one who struck is a murderer. The murderer must be put to death. ¹⁸Or if someone strikes another person with a wooden object in the hand that could kill, and that person dies, the one who struck is a murderer. The murderer must be put to death. ¹⁹It is the avenger of blood who is to put the murderer to death, wherever he finds them. ²⁰If anyone shoves someone out of hatred, or lies in wait and throws something at that person, and the person dies, ²¹or strikes someone with the hand out of hostility, and the person dies, the one who struck must be put to death as a murderer. The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death wherever he finds them. ²²But if anyone pushes someone suddenly, without hostility, or throws any object at that person without lying in wait, ²³or drops a stone heavy enough to kill on someone without seeing that person, and the person dies, even though there was no enmity between them and no wish to do harm, ²⁴then the congregation is to judge between the one who struck and the avenger of blood according to these rulings. ²⁵The congregation is to protect the one who killed from the avenger of blood and return that person to the city of refuge where they fled. The one who killed must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.^{b 26}But if the one who killed ever goes outside the boundary of the city of refuge where they fled, ²⁷and the avenger of blood finds them outside the boundary of that city of refuge and kills them, the avenger is not guilty of bloodshed. ²⁸For the one who killed must stay in the city of refuge until the high priest dies. After the death of the high priest, they may go back to their own land. ²⁹These are to be a legal statute for you throughout your generations, wherever you live. ³⁰When someone is accused of killing a person, the murderer may be put to death only if witnesses testify to it. The word of one witness is not enough to put anyone to death. ³¹Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty and deserves to die. Such a murderer must be put to death. ³²Nor are you to accept a ransom for one who has fled to a city of refuge, to let them go back and live on their own land before the priest dies. ³³Do not pollute the land where you live. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and when blood has been shed on it, nothing can make atonement for the land except the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴Do not make unclean the land where you live, the land where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.’”