Conquest of Canaan

If the next-of-kin avenger pursues him, they are not to hand over the killer to him; because he struck his fellow community member unknowingly and had not hated him previously.

So he will live in that city until he stands trial before the community, until the death of the cohen hagadol who is in office at the time. When that time comes, the killer may return to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.'"

So they set apart Kedesh in the Galil, in the hills of Naftali; Sh'khem in the hills of Efrayim; and Kiryat-Arba (that is, Hevron) in the hills of Y'hudah.

Beyond the Yarden east of Yericho they selected Betzer in the desert, on the plateau, out of the tribe of Re'uven; Ramot in Gil'ad out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of M'nasheh.

These were the cities selected for all the people of Isra'el and for the foreigner living among them, so that anyone who kills any person by mistake could flee there and not die at the hand of the next-of-kin avenger prior to standing trial before the community.

Then the leaders of the ancestral clans of the L'vi'im approached El'azar the cohen, Y'hoshua the son of Nun and the leaders of the ancestral clans of the tribes of the people of Isra'el.

It was at Shiloh in the land of Kena'an that they spoke to them; they said, "ADONAI ordered through Moshe that we be given cities to live in, with the surrounding open land for our livestock."

So out of their inheritance the people of Isra'el gave the L'vi'im the following cities with the surrounding open land:

The lot came out for the families of the K'hati. The descendants of Aharon the cohen, who were of the L'vi'im, received by lot thirteen cities from the tribes of Y'hudah, Shim'on and Binyamin.

The rest of the descendants of K'hat received by lot ten cities from the families of the tribes of Efrayim and Dan and the half-tribe of M'nasheh.

The descendants of Gershon received by lot thirteen cities from the families of the tribes of Yissakhar, Asher, Naftali and the half-tribe of M'nasheh in Bashan.

The descendants of M'rari according to their families received twelve cities from the tribes of Re'uven, Gad and Z'vulun.

The people of Isra'el gave by lot to the L'vi'im these cities with the surrounding open land, as ADONAI had ordered through Moshe.

They gave from the tribe of the descendants of Y'hudah and from the tribe of the descendants of Shim'on these cities here mentioned by name;

they were for the descendants of Aharon, of the families of the K'hati, who were among the descendants of Levi; because theirs was the first lot.

They gave them: Kiryat-Arba - this Arba was the father of 'Anak - (that is, Hevron), in the hills of Y'hudah, with the surrounding open land;

but the fields and villages of the city they gave to Kalev the son of Y'funeh as his possession.

Thus to the descendants of Aharon the cohen they gave: Hevron with its surrounding open land, already a city of refuge for the killer; Livnah with its surrounding open land;

Yatir with its surrounding open land; Esht'moa with its surrounding open land;

Holon with its surrounding open land; D'vir with its surrounding open land;

'Ayin with its surrounding open land, Yutah with its surrounding open land and Beit-Shemesh with its surrounding open land - nine cities out of these two tribes.

Out of the tribe of Binyamin: Giv'on with its surrounding open land, Geva with its surrounding open land,

'Anatot with its surrounding open land and 'Almon with its surrounding open land - four cities.

All the cities of the descendants of Aharon, the cohanim, numbered thirteen cities with their surrounding open land.

The families of the descendants of K'hat, who were L'vi'im, that is, the rest of the descendants of K'hat, received the cities of their lot. Out of the tribe of Efrayim