Numbers 35

Versículo 1. Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:

Versículo 2. “Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.

Versículo 3. The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.

Versículo 4. The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side.

Versículo 5. You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.

Versículo 6. Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities.

Versículo 7. The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.

Versículo 8. The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”

Versículo 9. Then the LORD said to Moses,

Versículo 10. “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

Versículo 11. designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

Versículo 12. You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

Versículo 13. The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.

Versículo 14. Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.

Versículo 15. These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

Versículo 16. If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

Versículo 17. Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

Versículo 18. If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

Versículo 19. The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

Versículo 20. Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,

Versículo 21. or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.

Versículo 22. But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally,

Versículo 23. or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him,

Versículo 24. then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

Versículo 25. The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

Versículo 26. But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled

Versículo 27. and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed

Versículo 28. because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.

Versículo 29. This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.

Versículo 30. If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

Versículo 31. You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

Versículo 32. Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

Versículo 33. Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

Versículo 34. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”