1: The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying, |
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2: Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of
refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses: |
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3:
That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may
flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. |
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4: And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the
entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the
elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a
place, that he may dwell among them. |
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5: And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not
deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly,
and hated him not beforetime. |
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6: And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the
congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be
in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and
unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled. |
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7: And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in
mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. |
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8: And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer
in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in
Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of
Manasseh. |
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9: These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and
for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person
at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood,
until he stood before the congregation. |