1 And the Lord spake with Mosheh in the plains of Moab, on the Jordan-Jericho, saying: 2 Command the sons of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to inhabit, and a space (suburb) with the cities round about shall they give to the Levites. 3 And the cities they shall have to inhabit, and their spaces, shall be for their cattle, and for their possessions, and for all their animals. 4 And the spaces of the cities which you give to the Levites (shall extend) from the wall of the city outward, a thousand cubits round about. 5 And you shall measure without the city, on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, and the city in the midst; this shall be for you the spaces of the cities. 6 And (of) the cities which you give to the Levites, six shall be cities of refuge, which you shall appoint for the (man) slayer to flee thereunto, and to them you shall add forty-two cities. 7 All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, they and their suburbs. 8 And the cities that you give shall be of the inheritance of the Beni Israel; of those who have many you shall give many, and of the few you shall give few; each according to his possession he inherits shall he give of his cities to the Levites.

9 And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: 10 speak with the sons of Israel, and say to them: When you have passed the Jordan to the land of Kenaan, 11 Then shall you appoint to you cities, cities of refuge shall they be for you, that the slayer who hath killed a life unawares may flee thither. 12 And they shall be for you cities of refuge from the avenger of blood, that the slayer may not die until he hath stood before the congregation for judgment. 13 And of those cities that you give you shall have six cities of refuge: 14 Three cities you shall give beyond Jordan, and three cities in the land of Kenaan; cities of refuge shall they be. 15 For the sons of Israel, and for the sojourner among you, there shall be these six cities of refuge, that thither may flee everyone who bath slain a person unawares.

16 But if he hath smitten him with a weapon of iron and killed him, he is a murderer; and the murderer is to be surely put to death. 17 Or, if with a stone which he carried in his hand, that he who was struck with it should die, he who killed him is a murderer, and the murderer is to be surely put to death. 18 Or, if with a weapon of wood which he carried in his hand that he who was struck with it might die, and he killeth him, he is a murderer, and the murderer shall be verily put to death. 19 The avenger of blood himself shall kill the murderer, when condemned by the judgment he shall kill him. 20 And if he smote him in enmity, or threw at him in concealment and killed him, 21 Or in enmity smote him with his hand and killed him, the smiter is a murderer, he shall be surely put to death: the avenger of blood shall slay the slayer when he is condemned.

22 But if he have struck him suddenly without enmity, or have thrown anything upon him without lying in wait for him, 23 Or struck him with a stone sufficient to kill him, but cast it upon him without seeing, and have killed him without hating him or seeking to do him evil, 24 then the congregation shall judge between the smiter and the avenger of blood, according to these judgments. 25 And the congregation shall deliver the slayer from the avenger of blood, and return him to the city of his refuge to which he had fled, and he shall dwell in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26 But if the slayer shall come out of the boundary of the city of his retreat to which he hath fled, 27 and the avenger of blood find him outside of the bounds of the city of his retreat, and the avenger of blood slay the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. 28 Because he should have abode within the city of his retreat until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the slayer may return to the land of his inheritance.

29 And these shall be to you a decree of judgment for your generations in all your dwellings. 30 Whosoever killeth a person shall die, by the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify against a man to put (him) to death. 31 Neither may you take money on account of a manslayer who is guilty of death, for dying he shall die. 32 Nor may you take money for him who hath fled to his city of refuge, so that he may return to dwell in the land till the high priest shall die. 33 But you shall not make guilty the land in which you are; for blood maketh the land guilty; and the land is not expiated for innocent blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him who shed it. 34 Defile not then the land in which you dwell, for My Shekinah dwelleth in the midst of it; for I, the Lord, by My Shekinah dwell among the children of Israel.