Joshua 20

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Cities of Safety

20 <1> Then the Lord said to Joshua: <2> "Through Moses, I told you to choose some cities to be cities of safety. <3> Whoever kills someone accidentally, without meaning to, can go to a city of safety to hide from the relatives who want to kill him.

<4> "If you accidentally kill someone and you run away to one of those cities, you must stop at the entrance of the city and tell the leaders of the people what happened. Then the leaders can allow you to enter the city. They will give you a place to live among them. <5> If someone chases you and follows you to that city, the leaders of the city must not give you up. They must protect you because you came to them for safety after killing someone by accident-you were not angry and did not plan to kill the person. It was something that just happened. <6> You should stay in that city until you have been judged by its court and until the high priest dies. Then you may go back to your hometown."

<7> So the Israelites chose some cities to be called cities of safety. These are the cities:

Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali;

Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim;

Kiriath Arba (Hebron) in the hill country of Judah;

<8> Bezer, east of the Jordan River

across from Jericho,

in the desert area in the land of Reuben;

Ramoth in Gilead in the land of Gad;

and Golan in Bashan in the land of Manasseh.

<9> All Israelites or any foreigners living among them who killed someone by accident were allowed to run away to one of these cities of safety. They could be safe there and not be killed by anyone chasing them. They would be judged by the court in that city.