Forty-Eight Cities for the Levites
And the LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
“Command the sons of Israel, that they give to the Levites, from the inheritance of their holding, cities to live in; and pastureland around the cities you shall give to the Levites.
And the cities shall be theirs to live in, and their pasturelands shall be for their beasts and for their goods and for all their animals.
And the pasturelands of the cities that you give to the Levites shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around.
And you shall measure outside the city: the east side two thousand cubits, and the south side two thousand cubits, and the west side two thousand cubits, and the north side two thousand cubits, with the city in the middle. This shall be theirs as the pasturelands of the cities.
And the cities that you give to the Levites: the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the one who kills to flee to; and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.
All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities — them with their pasturelands.
And as for the cities that you give from the holding of the sons of Israel: from the many you shall take many, and from the few you shall take few; each tribe, according to its inheritance that it inherits, shall give some of its cities to the Levites.”
Six Cities of Refuge
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you; and the one who kills, who strikes down a soul unintentionally, shall flee there.
And the cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who kills does not die until he has stood before the congregation for judgment.
And the cities that you give — six cities of refuge shall they be for you:
three cities you shall give across the Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan; cities of refuge they shall be.
For the sons of Israel, and for the sojourner, and for the resident stranger in their midst, these six cities shall be a refuge — for everyone who strikes down a soul unintentionally to flee there.
But if he struck him with an iron tool, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
And if he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which one may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Or if he struck him with a wooden tool in the hand, by which one may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
The avenger of blood — he shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.
And if he pushed him in hatred, or threw something at him with intent, and he died,
or in enmity struck him with his hand, and he died — the one who struck shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
But if he pushed him suddenly, without enmity, or threw any tool at him without intent,
or with any stone by which one may die, without seeing him, dropped it on him, and he died — and he was not his enemy, and was not seeking his harm —
then the congregation shall judge between the one who struck and the avenger of blood, according to these judgments.
And the congregation shall deliver the one who killed from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to his city of refuge where he fled; and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.
But if the one who killed ever goes out beyond the border of his city of refuge where he fled,
and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the one who killed — there is no bloodguilt for him.
For he must live in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; and after the death of the high priest the one who killed may return to the land of his holding.
And these things shall be for you a statute of judgment throughout your generations, in all your dwellings.
Whoever strikes down a soul — at the mouth of witnesses the murderer shall be put to death; but one witness shall not testify against a soul, to die.
And you shall take no ransom for the soul of a murderer who is guilty of death; for he shall surely be put to death.
And you shall take no ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, to let him return and live in the land before the death of the priest.
And you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood — it pollutes the land, and for the land no atonement can be made for the blood that is shed in it except by the blood of the one who shed it.
And you shall not make unclean the land in which you live, in whose midst I dwell — for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel.”