Numbers 35:1-34
35 And Jehovah spoke to Moses on the Moab flats by the Jordan at Jericho, saying
2 “Command the sons of Israel so that they may give the Levites out of their estate of property cities to live in; and you shall give the Levites glebe for the cities, all round them.
3 And the cities shall be for them to live in, and their glebes shall be for their livestock and chattels and all their beasts.
4 And the glebes of the cities you are to give the Levites shall be five hundred yards out from the city wall all round;
5 * and you shall measure, outside the city, the east border a thousand yards and the south border a thousand and the west border a thousand and the north border a thousand, with the city in the middle: this is what they shall have as city glebes.
6 And the cities you are to give to the Levites, the six cities of asylum which you are to give for the homicide to take flight to and forty-two cities besides them:
7 the total of the cities which you are to give to the Levites is forty-eight cities, them and their glebes.
8 * And the cities which you are to give are to be out of the property of the sons of Israel, more from the greater and less from the lesser; each tribe shall give cities to the Levites in proportion to the estate assigned to it.”
9 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying
10 “Tell the sons of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into Canaan
11 you shall single out cities which you are to have as cities of asylum for a homicide who has struck a deadly blow by misadventure to take flight to;
12 and you shall have the cities for an asylum from the blood-reclaimer, and the homicide shall not die till he stands before the congregation for judgment.
13 And as for the cities you are to institute, you shall have six cities of asylum:
14 three cities you shall institute on the other side of the Jordan and three cities you shall institute in Canaan; they shall be cities of asylum.
15 For the sons of Israel and for the immigrant and the dependent alien among you these six cities shall be an asylum for everyone who strikes a deadly blow by misadventure to take flight to.
16 And if he struck him with an iron article so that he died, he is murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
17 * And if he struck him with a stone fitted for use in the hand and suitable to cause death, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
18 * And if he struck him with a wooden implement fitted for use in the hand and suitable to cause death, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
19 The blood-reclaimer himself shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death upon meeting with him.
20 And if he pushed him with ill will, or threw at him with aim, so that he died,
21 or struck him hostilely with his hand so that he died, the killer must be put to death; he is a murderer; the blood-reclaimer shall put the murderer to death upon meeting with him.
22 But if he pushed him accidentally without hostile intent,
23 * or threw any implement at him without aim, or threw any stone, suitable to cause death, without seeing, and it fell on him so that he died, he not being an enemy to him nor intending harm to him,
24 the congregation shall judge between the killer and the blood-reclaimer by these laws,
25 and the congregation shall rescue the homicide from the hands of the blood-reclaimer and shall return him to his city of asylum to which he had taken flight, and he shall live in it till the high priest who has been anointed with the sacred oil dies.
26 And if the homicide shall go out of the boundaries of his city of asylum to which he has taken flight,
27 and the blood-reclaimer finds him outside the boundaries of his city of asylum, the blood-reclaimer is to slay the homicide, he incurs no bloodguilt;
28 for he is to stay in his city of asylum till the high priest dies, and after the high priest’s death the homicide is to go back to his own land.
29 And these things shall be a legal usage of yours generation after generation in all your domiciles.
30 In every case of one who strikes a deadly blow the homicide shall be found a murderer on the word of witnesses. And one witness shall not be evidence against a person for death.
31 * And you shall not take composition-money for the life of a homicide who is guilty and liable to die, but he must be put to death.
32 ** And you shall not take composition-money for flight to the city of asylum, for coming back to live in the country before the priest dies.
33 And you shall not pollute the country you are in: for blood pollutes the country, and the country will not be purged for the blood shed in it by anything but the blood of the one that shed it.
34 And you shall not defile the country you live in, in the midst of which I dwell; for I Jehovah dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel.
Footnotes
^ 35:5 Var. what you shall
^ 35:8 Lit. Israel; from the greater you shall make it more and from the lesser you shall make it less
^ 35:17 Lit. a hand stone that one would die by, so that
^ 35:18 Lit. a hand wooden implement that one would die by, so that
^ 35:23 Lit. or any stone
^ 35:31 Lit. Is guilty to die
^ 35:32 (for flight) Susp.
^ 35:32 Lit. till the priest dies
