1The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho. He said,
2"Command the people of Israel to give the Levites cities to live in, out of the land they receive as their own. You must also give the Levites the open land around those cities."
3The cities will be theirs to live in. The open land around them will be for their cattle, for their goods, and for all their animals.
4The open land of the cities that you give the Levites shall reach out from the city wall a thousand cubits on every side.
5Measure from outside the city two thousand cubits on the east side, two thousand cubits on the south side, two thousand cubits on the west side, and two thousand cubits on the north side. The city shall be in the middle. This shall be their open land around the cities.
6Among the cities you give the Levites there shall be six cities of refuge. You shall set them apart so that a person who has killed someone may flee there. To these you shall add forty-two more cities.
7So all the cities you give the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, with their open land.
8"The cities you give shall come from the land the people of Israel own. From a large tribe you shall take many, and from a small tribe you shall take few. Each tribe shall give some of its cities to the Levites, in keeping with the size of the land it receives."
9The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
10"Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,"
11then you shall choose cities to be cities of refuge for you. Anyone who kills a person by accident may flee there.
12These cities shall be a refuge for you from the avenger, so that the one who killed will not die before he stands trial before the assembly.
13Of the cities you give, six shall be cities of refuge for you.
14You shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.
15These six cities shall be a refuge for the people of Israel, for the stranger, and for anyone living among them, so that anyone who kills a person by accident may flee there.
16But if a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
17If he strikes him by throwing a stone big enough to kill, and the man dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
18Or if he strikes him with a wooden weapon in his hand that is able to kill, and the man dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
19The avenger of blood himself shall kill the murderer. When he meets him, he shall kill him.
20If a man pushes someone out of hatred, or throws something at him while lying in wait, so that he dies,
21or strikes him with his hand out of enmity, so that he dies, then the one who struck him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall kill the murderer when he meets him.
22But if he pushes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws something at him without lying in wait,
23or drops on him any stone big enough to kill, without seeing him, so that he dies, and the man was not his enemy and he was not seeking to harm him,
24then the assembly shall judge between the one who killed and the avenger of blood, according to these rules.
25The assembly shall rescue the one who killed from the hand of the avenger of blood, and shall send him back to the city of refuge where he had fled. He shall stay there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.
26But if the one who killed ever goes outside the border of the city of refuge where he had fled,
27and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills him, then the avenger is not guilty of blood.
28For the man should have stayed in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. After the death of the high priest, the one who killed may return to the land he owns.
29These things shall be a rule of judgment for you through all your generations, wherever you live.
30Whoever kills a person shall be put to death as a murderer on the word of witnesses. But one witness alone shall not be enough to condemn anyone to death.
31You shall not take a payment for the life of a murderer who deserves to die. He shall surely be put to death.
32You shall not take a payment for one who has fled to his city of refuge, to let him come back and live in the land before the death of the priest.
33So you shall not pollute the land where you are, for blood defiles the land. The land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
34"So do not defile the land where you live, in which I dwell. For I the LORD dwell among the people of Israel.'"