⁶ “Now among the cities which you will give to the Levites you shall appoint ^(A)six cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. And to these you shall add forty-two cities.

^2 (A)you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “And ^(B)this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor ^[a]unintentionally, not having hated him in time past— ⁵ as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live; ^6 (C)lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. ⁷ Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “Now if the Lord your God ^(D)enlarges your territory, as He swore to ^(E)your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, ⁹ and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, ^(F)then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, ^10 (G)lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

¹¹ “But ^(H)if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ^13 (I)Your eye shall not pity him, ^(J)but you shall ^[b]put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

⁷ So they appointed ^(A)Kedesh in Galilee, in the mountains of Naphtali, ^(B)Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and ^(C)Kirjath Arba (which is Hebron) in ^(D)the mountains of Judah. ⁸ And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned ^(E)Bezer in the wilderness on the plain, from the tribe of Reuben, ^(F)Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and ^(G)Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. ^9 (H)These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who ^[a]dwelt among them, that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood ^(I)until he stood before the congregation.