1And the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying:2Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: Give to yourselves the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses,3so that a murderer who strikes a soul unintentionally, without knowledge, may flee there; and they shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.4He shall flee to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and speak his words in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall gather him into the city to themselves, give him a place, and he shall dwell with them.5If the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the murderer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor without knowledge and he was not hating him from yesterday or three days ago.6He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest who shall be in those days; then the murderer shall return and come to his city and to his house, to the city from which he fled.7They consecrated Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.8And beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward they gave Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.9These were the cities designated for all the sons of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns among them, so that anyone who strikes a soul unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation.