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Joshua 20

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The cities of refuge

1 Then Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'Appoint for yourselves the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, 3 that the manslayer who kills a person unintentionally, without knowing it, may flee there; and they shall be a refuge for you from the avenger of blood. 4 He shall flee to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city; and they shall take him into the city with them and give him a place, and he shall dwell with them. 5 And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past. 6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the manslayer may return and come to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled.'"

7 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, in the hill country of Judah. 8 And beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness, on the plateau, from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. 9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills a person unintentionally may flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation.

Notes

  • 20:3 Joshua joins the wording of both earlier passages: bishgagah, "unintentionally," is the word of Numbers 35:11, and bivli da'at, literally "without knowledge," is the phrase of Deuteronomy 4:42 and 19:4, where the TRB translates it "unintentionally" (as in verse 5 here). "Manslayer" is rotseach, and "the avenger of blood" is the go'el ha-dam, the near kinsman who had to answer for a relative's shed blood.
  • 20:6 The verse has two "untils." First the case is judged by the congregation (Numbers 35:24-25); then, if the killing was unintentional, the manslayer stays in the city of refuge until the high priest dies, and only after that may he go home (Numbers 35:28). The elders at the gate (verse 4) heard him and took him in, but the verse leaves the judgment of the case to the congregation.
  • 20:7 "Set apart" is vayyaqdishu, literally "they made holy," and the first city named is Kedesh, "holy place," a play on words the Hebrew reader hears at once. The three cities lie north, center and south, as Deuteronomy 19:3 required, so that one was within reach from anywhere west of the Jordan. "Galilee" is from galil, "circle" or "district," the region Isaiah calls "Galilee of the nations" (Isaiah 9:1).

Joshua 19 · Joshua 21

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