201 Then the Lord spoke to Joshua , saying , 2 "Speak to the sons of Israel , saying , 'Designate the cities of refuge , of which I spoke to you through Moses , 3 that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally , without premeditation , may flee there , and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood . 4 'He shall flee to one of these cities , and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city ; and they shall take him into the city to them and give him a place , so that he may dwell among them. 5 'Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand , because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand e . 6 'He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment , until the death of the one who is high priest in those days . Then the manslayer shall return e to his own city and to his own house , to the city from which he fled .' "
7 So 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 . 8 Beyond the Jordan east of Jericho , they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben , and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad , and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh . 9 These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally may flee there , and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation .
