Bible Verses About Homicide

The cities were Betzer in the desert, in the flatland, for the Re'uveni; Ramot in Gil'ad for the Gadi; and Golan in Bashan for the M'nashi.

you are to set aside three cities for yourselves in your land that ADONAI your God is giving you to possess.

Divide the territory of your land, which ADONAI your God is having you inherit, into three parts; and prepare the roads, so that any killer can flee to these cities.

The killer who will live if he flees there is someone who has killed his fellow member of the community by mistake, who did not hate him in the past.

An example would be if a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and takes a stroke with the axe to fell a tree, but the head of the axe flies off the handle, hits his neighbor and kills him. Then he is to flee to one of these cities and live there.

Otherwise the next-of-kin avenger, in the heat of his anger, may pursue the killer, overtake him because the distance [to the city of refuge] is long, and strike him dead - even though he didn't deserve to die, inasmuch as he hadn't hated him in the past.

This is why I am ordering you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

"If ADONAI your God expands your territory, as he swore to your ancestors that he would, and gives you all the land he promised to give to your ancestors -

provided you keep and observe all these mitzvot I am giving you today, loving ADONAI your God and always following his ways - then you are to add three more cities for yourselves, besides these three;

so that innocent blood will not be shed in the land ADONAI your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus blood guilt be on you.

ADONAI said to Y'hoshua,

"Tell the people of Isra'el, 'Select the cities of refuge about which I spoke to you through Moshe;

so that anyone who kills someone by mistake and unknowingly may escape there; they will serve as refuges for you from the next-of-kin avenger.

He is to flee to one of those cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate and state his cause to the city leaders. Then they will bring him into the city with them and give him a place, so that he may live among them.

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.