Numbers 35 Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab along the Jordan across from Jericho, saying.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab along the Jordan across from Jericho, saying. ² »Tell the Israelites to give the Levites some cities from their own property. They must also give the Levites the pastureland around those cities. ³ "The Levites will have cities to live in and pastureland for their cattle, the flocks they own, and any other animals they have. ⁴ "The land around the cities that you give the Levites will extend fifteen hundred feet from the city wall. ⁵ "Outside the city measure off three thousand feet on the east side, three thousand feet on the south side, three thousand feet on the west side, and three thousand feet on the north side, with the city in the center. This will be their pastureland around the city. ⁶ "Six of the cities you give the Levites will be cities of refuge. You must allow murderers to escape to these cities. In addition, you must also give the Levites forty-two other cities. ⁷ So all the cities you give to the Leviym, forty-eight cities - them with their suburbs: ⁸ "The cities you give the Levites from the property of the other Israelites must be given based on the amount of land each tribe owns. Take more cities from larger tribes and fewer from smaller tribes." ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ "Speak to the Israelites and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ you will select for yourselves cities for your cities of refuge, that a killer who has killed a person unintentionally can flee there. ¹² those cities will be places of refuge from the avenger of blood, that the manslayer may not die, until he stand before the congregation for trial. ¹³ The cities that you are to give will be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ three ye shall give on this side Jordan and three in the land of Canaan. ¹⁵ "These six cities will be places of refuge for Israelites, foreigners, and strangers among you. Anyone who unintentionally kills another person may flee to these cities. ¹⁶ But if he strikes him with an instrument of iron, so that he dies, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ And if he smote him with a stone in the hand, whereby a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he smites him with a wooden instrument in his hand by which one may die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death, yea death. ¹⁹ the avenger of blood, he shall put the murderer to death; when he meeteth him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰ And if he thrust at him out of hatred, or hurl at him intentionally, so that he die, 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. ²² But if he have thrust at him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything unintentionally, ²³ or, when not seeing him, he causes any stone by which one may die to fall on him and he dies, yet he was not his enemy and was not seeking his evil, ²⁴ then the assembly shall judge between the smiter and the avenger of blood, according to these judgments. ²⁵ »If you are innocent, the community must protect you from that relative. They must take you back to the city of refuge you fled to. You must live there until the death of the chief priest who was anointed with the holy oil. ²⁶ But if the killer surely goes out of the territory of the city of his refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood find him outside the border of his city of refuge and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he will not be guilty of blood, ²⁸ because he must live in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the killer will return to the land of his property. ²⁹ These rules are to be your guide in judging through all your generations wherever you may be living. ³⁰ " 'If anyone kills a person, the killer will be put to death according to the testimony of witnesses, but someone cannot die on testimony of one person. ³¹ And you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death. But he shall surely be put to death. 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. 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. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, the LORD, dwell among the children of Israel.’”