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Now Yehowah spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab across the Jordan near Jericho, and said,
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Command the sons of Israel to give the Levites cities to live in, from the inheritance of their possession; and you shall give the Levites pasture-lands round about the cities.
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And the cities shall be for them to live in; and their pasture-lands shall be for their cattle and their livestock and all their animals.
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And the pasture-lands of the cities which you give the Levites shall extend from the city wall for a thousand cubits all round.
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And you shall measure from the outside of the city two thousand cubits on the east side, and two thousand cubits on the south, and two thousand cubits on the west, and two thousand cubits on the north, the city being in the middle; they shall have these pasture-lands for their cities.
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And among the cities which you give the Levites, there shall be six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and as well as these you shall give them forty-two cities.
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The cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight in all, with their pasture-lands.
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And as for the cities which you give from the possession of the sons of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take more, but from the smaller you shall take less; each shall give some of its cities to the Levites according to its inheritance which it receives.
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And Yehowah spoke to Moses, and said,
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Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
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you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for yourselves, so that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there.
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And you shall use the cities for a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer shall not die until he has stood for judgment before the congregation.
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And the cities which you shall give shall be your six cities of refuge.
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You shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge.
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For the sons of Israel, and for settlers and those who live among them, these six cities shall be a refuge, so that every one who has killed a person unintentionally may flee there.
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But if anyone strikes a man with an implement of iron so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
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Or if he strikes a man with a stone in his hand to make him die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
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Or if he strikes a man with an implement of wood in his hand to make him die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.
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The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death himself; when he meets him he shall put him to death.
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And if he stabs him from hatred, or lying in wait throws something at him, so that he dies,
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or if in enmity he strikes him with his hand so that he dies, he who has struck him must be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
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But if he stabs him suddenly without enmity, or throws any implement at him without lying in wait,
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or throws any stone that would cause death, and without seeing him throws it at him so that he dies, though he was not his enemy and did not seek to harm him,
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then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these regulations.
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Then the congregation shall save the manslayer from the hands of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge to which he had fled; and he shall live there until the death of the high priest, the one anointed with the holy oil.
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But if at any time the manslayer goes beyond the boundary of the city of refuge to which he had fled,
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and the avenger of blood finds him beyond the boundary of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood.
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For he should have remained in his city of refuge until the high priest's death; but after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.
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And these things shall be a statute of judgment for you throughout your generations wherever you live.
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If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but one witness alone shall not testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.
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Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he must be put to death.
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And you shall take no ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, so that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest.
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So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land, and no reconciliation can be made for the land on account of blood which is shed on it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
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And you shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I have settled; for I Yehowah have settled in the midst of the sons of Israel.
