35Numbers 35

1Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,Select Numbers 35:1

2“Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in. You shall give suburbs for the cities around them to the Levites.Select Numbers 35:2

3The cities shall they have to dwell in. Their suburbs shall be for their livestock, and for their substance, and for all their animals.Select Numbers 35:3

4“The suburbs of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits around it.Select Numbers 35:4

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 middle. This shall be the suburbs of their cities.Select Numbers 35:5

6“The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.Select Numbers 35:6

7All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their suburbs.Select Numbers 35:7

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 some of his cities to the Levites.”Select Numbers 35:8

9Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,Select Numbers 35:9

10“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,Select Numbers 35:10

11then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.Select Numbers 35:11

12The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.Select Numbers 35:12

13The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.Select Numbers 35:13

14You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.Select Numbers 35:14

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.Select Numbers 35:15

16“‘But 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.Select Numbers 35:16

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.Select Numbers 35:17

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.Select Numbers 35:18

19The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death.Select Numbers 35:19

20If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,Select Numbers 35:20

21or in hostility 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.Select Numbers 35:21

22“‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,Select Numbers 35:22

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;Select Numbers 35:23

24then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.Select Numbers 35:24

25The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.Select Numbers 35:25

26“‘But if the man slayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees,Select Numbers 35:26

27and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the man slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood,Select Numbers 35:27

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 man slayer shall return into the land of his possession.Select Numbers 35:28

29“‘These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.Select Numbers 35:29

30“‘Whoever 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.Select Numbers 35:30

31“‘Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.Select Numbers 35:31

32“‘You 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.Select Numbers 35:32

33“‘So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.Select Numbers 35:33

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.’”Select Numbers 35:34