¹And Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

²Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites, from their inherited possession, cities to dwell in; and pasture land for the cities around them you shall give to the Levites.

³And the cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasture lands shall be for their livestock, for their goods, and for every living thing of theirs.

⁴And the pasture lands of the cities that you give to the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city outward, a thousand cubits all around.

⁵And you shall measure outside the city the east side, two thousand cubits, and the south side, two thousand cubits, and the sea side, two thousand cubits, and the north side, two thousand cubits, with the city in the middle. This shall belong to them: the pasture lands of the cities.

⁶Among the cities that you give to the Levites shall be six cities of refuge, which you give for the killer to flee there; and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

⁷All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, them and their pasture lands.

⁸And the cities that you give from the possession of the children of Israel: from the many you shall increase, and from the few you shall make less; each one, according to the portion of his inheritance that they inherit, shall give from his cities to the Levites.

⁹And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁰Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you are crossing the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

¹¹then you shall select for yourselves cities: cities of refuge they shall be for you, so that the killer who struck down a living being inadvertently may flee there.

¹²And the cities shall become for you a refuge from the avenger, so that the killer does not die until he stands before the face of the assembly for justice.

¹³And the cities that you give shall be six cities of refuge for you.

¹⁴Three of the cities you shall give on the far side of the Jordan, and three of the cities you shall give in the land of Canaan; cities of refuge they shall be.

¹⁵For the children of Israel, for the sojourner, and for the resident in their midst, these six cities shall be for refuge, for anyone who strikes down a living being inadvertently to flee there.

¹⁶But if with an iron implement he struck him, and he died, he is a killer; the killer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷And if with a stone held in the hand, by which someone could die, he struck him, and he died, he is a killer; the killer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸Or if with a wooden implement held in the hand, by which someone could die, he struck him, and he died, he is a killer; the killer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁹The avenger of the blood, he himself shall put the killer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

²⁰And if in hatred he pushes him, or he hurls something at him while lying in wait, so that he dies,

²¹or in enmity he struck him with his hand, and he died, the one who struck shall surely be put to death; he is a killer. The avenger of the blood shall put the killer to death when he meets him.

²²But if suddenly, without enmity, he pushes him, or hurls any implement at him without lying in wait,

²³or with any stone by which someone could die, without seeing him, he let it fall on him, and he died, though he was not his enemy and was not seeking his hurt,

²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the one who struck and between the avenger of blood, according to these justices.

²⁵And the assembly shall snatch away the killer from the hand of the avenger of the blood, and the assembly shall bring him back to the city of his refuge, where he fled there; and he shall dwell in it until the death of the great priest, whom someone anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶But if the killer ever goes out of the boundary of the city of his refuge, where he fled,

²⁷and the avenger of the blood finds him outside the boundary of the city of his refuge, and the avenger of the blood kills the killer, there is no blood on him,

²⁸for in the city of his refuge he shall dwell until the death of the great priest; and after the death of the great priest the killer shall return to the land of his possession.

²⁹And these shall be for you a statute of justice throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places.

³⁰Anyone who strikes down a living being: by the mouth of witnesses one shall kill the killer; but one witness shall not testify against a living being, so that one dies.

³¹And you shall not take a ransom for the living being of a killer who is wicked and must die; for he shall surely be put to death.

³²And you shall not take a ransom for one who has fled to the city of his refuge, to return and dwell in the land until the death of the priest.

³³And you shall not pollute the land you are in, for the blood itself pollutes the land, and the land cannot be covered over for the blood poured out in it, except by the blood of the one who poured it out.

³⁴And you shall not defile the land you dwell in, where I dwell in its midst; for I, Yahweh, dwell in the middle of the children of Israel.