Numbers 35:1 ←
Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
Numbers 35:2 ←
“Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance. You shall give pasture lands for the cities around them to the Levites.
Numbers 35:3 ←
They shall have the cities to dwell in. Their pasture lands shall be for their livestock, and for their possessions, and for all their animals.
Numbers 35:4 ←
“The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits around it.
Numbers 35:5 ←
You shall measure 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.
Numbers 35:6 ←
“The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.
Numbers 35:7 ←
All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands.
Numbers 35:8 ←
Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many, and from the few you shall take few. Everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give some of his cities to the Levites.”
Numbers 35:9 ←
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 35:10 ←
“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
Numbers 35:11 ←
then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
Numbers 35:12 ←
The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.
Numbers 35:13 ←
The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.
Numbers 35:14 ←
You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.
Numbers 35:15 ←
These 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.
Numbers 35:16 ←
“ ‘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.
Numbers 35:17 ←
If 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.
Numbers 35:18 ←
Or 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.
Numbers 35:19 ←
The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death.
Numbers 35:20 ←
If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died,
Numbers 35:21 ←
or 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.
Numbers 35:22 ←
“ ‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,
Numbers 35:23 ←
or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him so that he died, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm,
Numbers 35:24 ←
then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
Numbers 35:25 ←
The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
Numbers 35:26 ←
“ ‘But if the man slayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge where he flees,
Numbers 35:27 ←
and 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,
Numbers 35:28 ←
because 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.
Numbers 35:29 ←
“ ‘These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Numbers 35:30 ←
“ ‘Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain based on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify alone against any person so that he dies.
Numbers 35:31 ←
“ ‘Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death. He shall surely be put to death.
Numbers 35:32 ←
“ ‘You shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.
Numbers 35:33 ←
“ ‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; 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.
Numbers 35:34 ←
You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, Yahweh, dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”
Public Domain