1And Yehovah spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, 2Command the children of Israel, that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and pasturelands for the cities around them you shall give to the Levites. 3And the cities they shall have to dwell in; and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle, and for their substance, and for all their beasts. 4And the pasturelands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits around. 5And you shall measure outside the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the pasturelands of the cities. 6And the cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities. 7All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities; them you shall give with their pasturelands. 8And concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: every one according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites. 9And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 10Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 12And the cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment. 13And the cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge. 14You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. 15For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, these six cities shall be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 16But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 17And if he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 18Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 19The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death. 20And if he thrust him out of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, 21or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him. 22But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, 23or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, nor sought his harm; 24then the congregation shall judge between the smiter and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances; 25and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of 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. 26But if the manslayer at any time goes beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees, 27and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood, 28because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession. 29And these things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 30Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person so that he dies. 31Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. 32And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. 33So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it. 34And you shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yehovah, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.