Six of those cities will be cities of safety. If a person {accidentally} kills someone, then that person can run to those towns for safety. In addition to those six cities, you will also give 42 more cities to the Levites.
Deuteronomy 4:42 - Easy To Read Version If a person accidentally killed another person, he could run away to one of those three cities and not be put to death. But he could be safe only if he did not hate the other person and did not mean to kill him. Tuilleadh leaganachaKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 that the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live: Amplified Bible - Classic Edition That the manslayer might flee there, who slew his neighbor unintentionally and had not previously been at enmity with him, that fleeing to one of these cities he might save his life: American Standard Version (1901) that the manslayer might flee thither, that slayeth his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in time past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live: Common English Bible so that anyone who killed someone accidentally and without prior hatred could flee to one of these cities and be safe: Catholic Public Domain Version so that anyone might flee to these if he has killed his neighbor unwillingly, who was not his enemy a day or two earlier, and so that he would be able to escape to one of these cities: Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version That any one might flee to them who should kill his neighbour unwillingly, and was not his enemy a day or two before: and that he might escape to some one of these cities: |
Six of those cities will be cities of safety. If a person {accidentally} kills someone, then that person can run to those towns for safety. In addition to those six cities, you will also give 42 more cities to the Levites.
The three cities that Moses chose were: Bezer in the high plains for Reuben’s family group; Ramoth in Gilead for Gad’s family group; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh’s family group.
Those two things cannot change. God cannot lie when he says something and he cannot lie when he makes a vow. So those things give great comfort to us who came to God for safety. Those two things give us comfort and strength to continue in the hope that God gives us.