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Joshua 20:1-9 — Cities of Refuge

Josh.20.1-9

¹Then the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, ²"Speak to the Israelites, saying, 'Designate for yourselves the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses, ³so that the manslayer who strikes down a person unintentionally, unknowingly, may flee there; and they shall be for you as a refuge from the avenger of blood. ⁴He shall flee to one of these cities and stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and state his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall bring him into the city among them, give him a place, and he shall live with them. ⁵And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand over the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly and had not hated him previously . ⁶He shall live in that city until he stands before the assembly for judgment, and until the death of the High Priest who is in office in those days. Then the manslayer may return and come to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.' ⁷So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. ⁸And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. ⁹These were the designated cities for all the Israelites and for the resident foreigner living among them, so that anyone who strikes down a person unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the assembly.

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4/11/2026

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