Numbers 35:12

Revised Standard Version (RSV-CI)

The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

Cross References

2 Samuel 14:7

And now the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew’; and so they would destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon the face of the earth.”

Numbers 35:13

And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge.

Numbers 35:19

The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

Deuteronomy 19:4

“This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If any one kills his neighbor unintentionally without having been at enmity with him in time past—

Deuteronomy 19:6

lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and wound him mortally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he was not at enmity with his neighbor in time past.

Joshua 20:2

“Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses,

Joshua 20:9

These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel, and for the stranger sojourning among them, that any one who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.