Numbers

Levitical Cities

The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab, near the Jordan opposite Jericho. He said:

“Tell the people of Israel to give the Levites towns from their property to live in, including surrounding pastureland.

They shall live in the towns and tend their cattle and animals in the pastureland nearby.

The pasture around the towns you give to the Levites shall extend 500 yards in each direction from the walls of the towns,

forming a square area of 1,000 yards on each side with the town at the center.

The towns you give to the Levites will include the six towns of refuge where someone who causes another’s death can escape, and you will also give them forty-two additional towns.

Altogether, you will give forty-eight towns to the Levites, along with their pasturelands.

You shall take these towns from the property of the Israelites, choosing more towns from tribes with larger landholdings and fewer from tribes with smaller lands. Each tribe will give towns to the Levites proportional to the land they own.

Cities of Refuge

The Lord spoke to Moses and said:

“Say this to the people of Israel: When you cross the Jordan River and reach the land of Canaan,

you are to select towns that you will designate as towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may escape.

In these towns, they will be safe from the dead person’s relative who wants revenge so that the killer may not die without being brought to trial before the community.

The towns you give will serve you as six cities of refuge:

the three that you give beyond the Jordan and the three that you give in the land of Canaan are to be cities of refuge.

These six towns will be a refuge for the people of Israel as well as for the stranger and the foreigner among you, where anyone who has killed accidentally may find safety.

But if the killer has struck someone with an iron object or with a stone or wooden instrument and has killed that person, he is a murderer and must be put to death.

The dead person’s nearest relative must put the murderer to death. When he finds him, he must kill him.

If someone hates another person and causes his death by pushing him down,

throwing something at him, or hitting him with a fist, he is a murderer and must be put to death. The deceased person’s closest relative is responsible for executing him when they find him.

However, if someone unintentionally kills a person he does not hate—whether by pushing, throwing something at him,

or, without looking, throwing a stone that results in death—

the community shall judge in favor of the person who caused the death rather than the family member seeking revenge.

They will send the person who killed accidentally back to the city of refuge where he fled for safety, where he must stay until the death of the high priest.

If the killer should leave the city of refuge to which he had gone for safety

and the dead person’s nearest relative meets him outside the city of refuge, the relative may kill him without fear of punishment

since the killer should stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the high priest’s death is he free to return to his own home.

These regulations are for you and your descendants wherever you may be.

In case of murder, the accused may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses; the evidence of only one witness is not enough to uphold an accusation of murder.

You shall not accept payment to save the life of a murderer condemned to death; he must die.

Nor are you to accept payment from anyone who wishes to leave his city of refuge to return and live in his own home before the death of the high priest.

You must not defile the land you live in. Murder defiles the land, and there is no other atonement for the land where blood has been shed than through the blood of the murderer.

You must not defile the land you live in, where I live; for I, the Lord, live among the people of Israel.”