⁹ Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael saying: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ You are to select cities which will be cities of refuge, to which one might flee if he has killed someone by accident. ¹² They are to be cities for refuge from the avenger, so the manslayer may not die before standing trial before the assembly. ¹³ The six cities you designate are to be your cities of refuge. ¹⁴ Designate three cities on this side of the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.

¹⁵ “These six cities of refuge are to be for Bnei-Yisrael as well as for the outsider and the visitor in their midst, for anyone killing a person by accident. ¹⁶ Now if the manslayer strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer and the murderer must die. ¹⁷ If anyone has a stone in his hand that could be deadly and strikes anyone with it so that he dies, he is a murderer and the murderer must die. ¹⁸ Or if someone has a wooden object that could kill and strikes anyone so that he dies, he is a murderer and the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁹ The blood avenger himself may put the murderer to death. When he finds him, he is to kill him.

²⁰ “If anyone pushes someone maliciously, or throws anything at him with deadly intent, ²¹ or with hostility hits him with his fist so that he dies, the one hitting him is a murderer. The blood avenger may put the murderer to death when he finds him. ²² But if he pushes him suddenly or throws an object at him with no intent, ²³ or without seeing him should drop a stone on him resulting in his death, but he was not his enemy and intended him no harm, ²⁴ the assembly must judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these regulations. ²⁵ The assembly must protect the manslayer from the avenger of blood. The assembly should send him back to the city of refuge to which he had fled and he is to remain there until the death of the kohen gadol who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ “But if the manslayer should go outside the city limit of his city of refuge to which he had fled, ²⁷ and should the blood avenger find him outside the city limits of the refuge city, the blood avenger may put him to death without being guilty of his blood. ²⁸ The manslayer must stay within the limits of his city of refuge until the kohen gadol dies, and after the death of the kohen gadol, the manslayer may return to his property.

²⁹ “These are to be statutes of justice for your generations in all your dwelling places. ³⁰ Everyone killing anyone shall be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of more than one witness. No one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

³¹ “You are not to accept ransom for the life of a murderer. He deserves to die and he is to die. ³² Do not receive a ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, allowing him to return to his land before the kohen gadol’s death. ³³ You are not to pollute the land in which you are. Blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for land polluted by bloodshed except by the blood of the one who sheds it. ³⁴ You are not to defile the land where you live, where I dwell, for I dwell among Bnei-Yisrael.”