The towns of the Levites
1The Lord talked to Moses in the flatlands of Moab at the Jordan River, on the other side of the city of Jericho. The Lord said: 2‘You must tell the Israelites to give towns to the Levites for them to live in, from the land that they get. They must also give fields around the towns to the Levites, for their animals. 3The Levites must live in the towns and they must have fields for all their animals. 4The fields around the towns that you give to the Levites must be 1 000 cubits wide from the wall of the town. 5You must measure 2 000 cubits from the eastern side of the town, 2 000 cubits from the southern side, 2 000 cubits from the western side and 2 000 cubits from the northern side. This is the field for their animals with the town in the middle. These are the fields with the towns that the Levites must get.’
The towns_of_safety
(Also in Deuteronomy 19:1-13; Joshua 20:1-9)
6‘Some of the towns that you give to the Levites must be towns_of_safety. There must be 6 of them. Anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of these towns. Together with these 6 towns, you must also give the Levites another 42 towns. 7You must give them 48 towns with their fields. 8A big tribe must give more towns to the Levites and a smaller tribe must give only a few towns.’
9The Lord said to Moses: 10‘You must talk to the Israelites and tell them: “When you go over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, 11you must choose towns to be towns_of_safety. Anyone can flee to one of these towns if he has killed someone by accident. 12These towns must be towns_of_safety for you. The brother or cousin of the person who was killed may not come into the town to kill the person who has killed one of his family members. The congregation must first listen to the person and they must judge him. 13You must have 6 towns_of_safety. 14You must have 3 towns_of_safety on the other side of the Jordan River and 3 towns on this side, where Canaan is. 15These 6 towns must be towns_of_safety for Israelites and for strangers and people who are not Israelites. Any person who kills someone, but by accident, may flee to these towns.
16But if he has beaten someone with a weapon or an iron and killed him, then he is a murderer and a murderer must die, this is sure. 17Or if someone has beaten a person with a dangerous rock and that person dies, then he is a murderer and a murderer must die, this is sure. 18Or if someone has beaten a person with a dangerous piece of wood and that person dies, then he is a murderer and a murderer must die, this is sure.
19The person who comes and wants to kill the murderer is always a brother or near family member of the person who has died and he will kill the murderer if he finds him, but he may not do it in a town_of_safety.
20If someone hates another person and he pushes him or throws something at him and it kills him, 21or if someone is an enemy of a person and he hits the person and kills him, then the person who has killed him must also die, this is sure. He is a murderer and the brother or someone in the family of the dead person must kill the murderer where he finds him.
22But if 2 people are not enemies and one pushes the other one or throws something at him by accident, then the congregation must judge them. 23Or if he throws a dangerous stone but does not look where he throws it, and the stone kills someone who is not his enemy and whom he did not want to hurt, 24then the congregation must judge between the person who has killed the other person and the relative of the dead person. 25The congregation must protect the killer from the brother of the dead person or his relative. The congregation must tell him to stay in the town_of_safety until the high-priest who has been anointed with holy olive oil dies.
26But if the person who killed someone goes outside the town_of_safety to where he has fled, 27and the brother or relative of the dead person finds him and kills him, then the brother or relative is not guilty of murder. 28If the person who has killed someone stays in the town_of_safety until the high-priest dies, then he may go back to his home. 29This is what you and your descendants must do, no_matter where you live.
30If someone kills a person and there are 2 or more witnesses who say they saw it, then the murderer must die. But if there is only one witness, then you must not kill the murderer.
31You may not take money from someone because he wants you to say that a murderer must not die, because a murderer must die, this is sure. 32You may also not take money from a person who has fled to a town_of_safety and who wants you to say he may go back to live in his land. He must stay in the town_of_safety until the high-priest has died.
33You must not make the land where you live impure, because murder makes the land impure. No one can make atonement for the land where someone was killed. The killer must die, and only that will make atonement for the land. 34Do not make the land where you live become impure. This is the land where I, the Lord, also live. I live among the Israelites.” ’
