Numbers 35:12

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, so that the slayer may not die until there is a trial before the congregation.

Cross References

2 Samuel 14:7

Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.’ Thus they would quench my one remaining ember and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”

Numbers 35:13

“The cities that you designate shall be six cities of refuge for you:

Numbers 35:19

The avenger of blood is the one who shall put the murderer to death; when they meet, the avenger of blood shall execute the sentence.

Deuteronomy 19:4

“Now this is the case of a homicide who might flee there and live, that is, someone who has killed another person unintentionally when the two had not been at enmity before.

Deuteronomy 19:6

But if the distance is too great, the avenger of blood in hot anger might pursue and overtake and put the killer to death, although a death sentence was not deserved, since the two had not been at enmity before.

Joshua 20:2

“Say to the Israelites: Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses,

Joshua 20:9

These were the cities designated for all the Israelites and for the aliens residing among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so as not to die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until there was a trial before the congregation.