| Chapter 20
|
1 | The LORD also
spake unto Joshua, saying, |
2
| Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities
of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses: |
3 | That the slayer that killeth any
person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge
from the avenger of blood. |
4
| And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand 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 take him into the city unto them, and
give him a place, that he may dwell among them. |
5 | And if the avenger of blood pursue after him,
then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his
neighbor unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime. |
6 | And he shall dwell in that city,
until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the
high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come
unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.
|
7 | And they
appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim,
and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. |
8 | And on the other side Jordan by
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 children of
Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth
any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the
avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation. |
