1 The LORD said to Joshua,
2 "Tell the children of Israel, 'Designate the cities of refuge I told you about through Moses,
3 so that anyone who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They will be your place of refuge from the avenger of blood.
4 When someone flees to one of these cities, he is to stand at the entrance of the city gate and present his case to the elders of that city. They are to admit him into the city and give him a place to live among them.
5 If the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand the killer over to him, since he killed his neighbor unintentionally and had not hated him beforehand.
6 He is to stay in that city until he has stood trial before the congregation and until the death of whoever is high priest at that time. Then the killer may go back to his own town and his own home, the town he fled from.'"
7 So they set aside Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, in the hill country of Judah.
8 East of the Jordan, across from Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.
9 These were the cities designated for all the children of Israel and for the sojourners living among them, so that anyone who killed a person accidentally could flee there and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood before standing trial before the congregation.