⁶ ·The killer [^LHe] must stay in the city until ·a court comes to a decision [^Lhe stands before the congregation for judgment] and until the high priest dies [Num. 35:25–28; ^Cthe high priest’s death may have marked a general amnesty]. Then he may go back home to the town from which he ran away.”

⁷ So the Israelites chose these cities to be cities of ·safety [refuge]: Kedesh in Galilee in the ·mountains [hill country] of Naphtali; Shechem in the ·mountains [hill country] of Ephraim; Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the ·mountains [hill country] of Judah; ⁸ Bezer ·on the east side of the Jordan River near [^Lbeyond the Jordan east of] Jericho in the ·desert [wilderness plain] in the land of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead in the land of Gad; and Golan in Bashan in the land of Manasseh.