Numbers

יהוה spoke to Moses in the steppes of Moab at the Jordan near Jericho, saying:

Instruct the Israelite people to assign, out of the holdings apportioned to them, towns for the Levites to dwell in; you shall also assign to the Levites pasture land around their towns.

The towns shall be theirs to dwell in, and the pasture shall be for the cattle they own and all their other beasts.

The town pasture that you are to assign to the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits outside the town wall all around.

You shall measure off two thousand cubits outside the town on the east side, two thousand on the south side, two thousand on the west side, and two thousand on the north side, with the town in the center. That shall be the pasture for their towns.

The towns that you assign to the Levites shall comprise the six cities of refuge that you are to designate for [a man] [a man] Like all ancient Near Eastern law collections, the Torah’s laws are illustrative rather than comprehensive. Its asylum schema does not appear to treat the case of a woman who kills someone, which would have been more complicated. who has killed someone who has killed someone I.e., regardless either of intent to kill or of the victim’s gender; trad. “manslayer.” to flee t

Thus the total of the towns that you assign to the Levites shall be forty-eight towns, with their pasture.

In assigning towns from the holdings of the Israelites, take more from the larger groups and less from the smaller, so that each assigns towns to the Levites in proportion to the share it receives.

יהוה spoke further to Moses:

Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

you shall provide yourselves with places to serve you as cities of refuge to which [a man] man See note at v. 6. who has killed someone who has killed someone See note at v. 6. —who has slain a person unintentionally—may flee.

The cities shall serve you as a refuge from the avenger, e., (male) next of kin; cf. note at Lev. 25.25. so that the killer may not die unless he has stood trial before the assembly.

The towns that you thus assign shall be six cities of refuge in all.

Three cities shall be designated beyond the Jordan, and the other three shall be designated in the land of Canaan: they shall serve as cities of refuge.

These six cities shall serve the Israelites and the resident aliens among them for refuge, so that any man who slays a person unintentionally may flee there.

Anyone, however, who strikes another with an iron object so that death results is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.

If one struck another with a stone tool ” that could cause death, and death resulted, that person is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.

Similarly, if one struck another with a wooden tool ” that could cause death, and death resulted, that person is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.

It is the blood-avenger who shall put the murderer to death; that is who shall put that person to death upon encounter.

So, too, if one pushed another in hate or hurled something at [the victim] on purpose and death resulted,

or if one struck another with the hand in enmity and death resulted, the assailant shall be put to death; that person is a murderer. The blood-avenger shall put the murderer to death upon encounter.

But if [a man] pushed without malice aforethought or hurled any object at [the victim] unintentionally,

or inadvertently ” dropped upon [the victim] any deadly object of stone, and death resulted—though not being an enemy and not seeking to harm—

in such cases the assembly shall decide between the slayer and the blood-avenger.

The assembly shall protect the killer from the blood-avenger, and the assembly shall restore him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and there he shall remain until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the sacred oil.

But if the killer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled,

and the blood-avenger comes upon him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the blood-avenger kills the killer, there is no bloodguilt on his account.

For he must remain inside his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; after the death of the high priest, the killer may return to his land holding.

Such shall be your law of procedure throughout the ages in all your settlements.

If anyone slays a person, the killer may be executed only on the evidence of witnesses; the testimony of a single witness against a person shall not suffice for a sentence of death.

You may not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of a capital crime; [a murderer] must be put to death.

Nor may you accept ransom in lieu of flight to a city of refuge, enabling a man to return to live on his land before the death of the priest.

You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I יהוה abide among the Israelite people.