1 And the LORD spoke unto Joshua, saying, 2 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke unto you by the hand of Moses, 3 so that the manslayer who kills any person in error and without knowledge may flee there, and they shall be your refuge from the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood. 4 And he that flees unto one of these cities shall present himself at the entering of the gate of the city and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city; they shall receive him into the city among them and give him a place, that he may dwell among them. 5 And when the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood pursues after him, they shall not deliver the manslayer up into his hand because he smote his neighbour by error, nor did he have enmity with him before. 6 And he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days; then shall the manslayer return, and come unto his own city and unto his own house unto the city from where he fled.
7 Then they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in the mountain of Naphtali and Shechem in the mountain of Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. 8 And on the other side of the Jordan of Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain 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 stranger that sojourns among them that anyone who kills any person by error might flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood until he stands before the congregation.