Joshua is commanded to appoint the refuge cities previously commanded through Moses.
1 Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,
The unintentional killer is given a place of protection from the avenger of blood.
3 that the man slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.
The manslayer must present his case at the city gate and be received by the elders.
4 He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them.
The elders must protect the accused when the death was accidental and without prior hatred.
5 If the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver up the man slayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before.
The accused remains in the city until trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest.
6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the man slayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’ ”
Three cities west of the Jordan and three east of the Jordan are set apart as places of refuge.
7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.
8 Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
The cities protect anyone in Israel who kills unintentionally until proper judgment is rendered.
9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands trial before the congregation.