1 The Lord said to Joshua:
2 Tell the Israelites: Designate for yourselves the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses,
3 to which anyone guilty of inadvertent and unintentional homicide may flee for asylum from the avenger of blood.
4 To one of these cities the killer shall flee, and standing at the entrance of the city gate, shall plead his case in the hearing of the elders of the city, who must receive him and assign him a place in which to live among them.
5 Though the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver up to him the one who killed a neighbor unintentionally, when there had been no hatred previously.
6 Once he has stood judgment before the community, he shall live on in that city until the death of the high priest who is in office at the time. Then the killer may return home to the city from where he originally fled.