Joshua 20:1-6

The Cities of Refuge Appointed

20¹ Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, ³ that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood. ⁴ He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them. ⁵ If the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver up the manslayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before. ⁶ He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the manslayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’”