And the Lord spoke to Yehoshua, saying,

Speak to the children of Yisra᾽el, saying, Assign for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moshe:

that the slayer that kills any person through error and unawares may flee there: and they shall be a refuge for you from the avenger of blood.

And when he that flees to one of those cities shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, then they shall admit him into the city to join them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.

And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unawares, and hated him not before that time.

And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come into his own city, and his own house, into the city from which he fled.

And they set apart Qedesh in the Galil in mount Naftali, and Shekhem in mount Efrayim, and Qiryat-arba, which is Ḥevron, in the mountain of Yehuda.

And on the other side of the Yarden by Yeriĥo eastward, they assigned Beżer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Re᾽uven, and Ramot in Gil῾ad out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Menashshe.

These were the appointed cities for all the children of Yisra᾽el, and for the stranger that sojourned among them, that whoever killed any person in error might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.