Chapter 35

¹Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, ²Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and suburbs for the cities round about them shall you give to the Levites. ³The cities shall they have to dwell in; and their suburbs shall be for their livestock, and for their substance, and for all their animals. ⁴The suburbs of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits round about. ⁵You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. ⁶The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities. ⁷All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities; them shall you give with their suburbs. ⁸Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites. ⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. ¹²The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment. ¹³The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge. ¹⁴You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. ¹⁵For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. ¹⁶But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him. ²²But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, ²³or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm; ²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances; ²⁵and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. ²⁶But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees, ²⁷and the avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood, ²⁸because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession. ²⁹These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³⁰Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die. ³¹Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. ³²You shall take no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. ³³So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it. ³⁴You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yahweh, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.