The Bible

Numbers Chapter 35

¹Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, ²"Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities to live in from their inheritance. Give pasture lands for the cities around them to the Levites. ³They shall have the cities to live in. Their pasture lands shall be for their livestock, and for their possessions, and for all their animals.

⁴"The pasture lands of the cities, which you'll give to the Levites, will be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits around it. ⁵Measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall be the pasture lands of their cities.

⁶"The cities which you'll give to the Levites, will be the six cities of refuge, which you'll give for the man-slayer to flee to. Besides them you'll give forty-two cities. ⁷All the cities which you'll give to the Levites will be forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands. ⁸Concerning the cities which you'll give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you'll take many, and from the few you'll take few. Everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give some of his cities to the Levites. ⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹then you are to appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man-slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. ¹²The cities will be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man-slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. ¹³The cities which you are to give will be for you six cities of refuge. ¹⁴You are to give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan. They'll be cities of refuge. ¹⁵These six cities shall be refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the foreigner living among them, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹⁶"'But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹or in hostility struck him with his hand, so that he died, he 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 shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, ²³or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and threw it at him so that he died, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm, ²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. ²⁵The congregation shall deliver the man-slayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall live in it until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶"'But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge where he flees, ²⁷and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the man-slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, ²⁸because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the man-slayer shall return into the land of his possession.

²⁹"'These things shall be for a statute [and] ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

³⁰"'Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slaughtered based on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify alone against any person so that he dies.

³¹"'In addition, take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death. He must surely be put to death.

³²"'Take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to live in the land until the death of the priest.

³³"'Don't pollute the land; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it. ³⁴Don't defile the land which you inhabit, where I live; for I, Yahweh, live among the children of Israel.'"