35:1¹ Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the Moabite plains by the Jordan near Jericho, saying, 35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give² the Levites towns to live in, from the inheritance that they will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the cities. 35:3 Thus they will have cities in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, and for their possessions, and for all their animals. 35:4 And the grazing lands around the cities that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of one thousand cubits from the town wall.

35:5 And you must measure³ from outside the wall of the town on the east 2,000 cubits, and on the south side 2,000 cubits, and on the west side 2,000 cubits, and on the north side 2,000 cubits; with the town in the middle. This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns. 35:6 Now out of these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six refugee towns to which a person who has killed someone may flee.⁴ And you must give them forty-two other towns.

35:7 So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands. 35:8 And the towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from smaller tribes. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

35:9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 35:10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaanite, 35:11 you must then designate some towns as towns of asylum⁵ for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee. 35:12 And they must stand as your refugee towns from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community. 35:13 These six towns that you must give you will have for refuge.

35:14 You must give three towns of this side of the Jordan and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be cities of refuge 35:15 These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the stranger, and for the settler among them, that anyone one who kills any person unawares may flee there.

35:16 And if he hits someone with an instrument of iron so that he dies,⁶ he is a murderer . The murderer must surely be put to death. 35:17 And if he strikes him by throwing a stone, wherewith he could die, and he dies, he is a manslayer, the murderer must surely be put to death. 35:18 Or, if he strikes him with a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. 35:19 The avenger⁷ of blood himself must slay the manslayer; when he meets him he must slay him.

35:20 But if he strikes him out of hatred, or throws something at him intentionally,⁸ that he dies— 35:21 or in strife he strikes him with his hand, and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must slay the murderer, even when he meets him.

35:22 But if he strikes him suddenly, without strife, or throws anything at him unintentionally, 35:23 or with any stone wherewith a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy and neither sought his harm, 35:24 then the community will judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions. 35:25 And the community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the city of his refuge, from whence he fled, and he must live in it until the death of the priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil. 35:26 But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the city to which he had fled, 35:27 and the avenger of blood find him outside the borders of the city of refuges, and the avenger of blood kill the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood. 35:28 Because he should have stayed in the city of his refuge until the death of high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return into the land of his possessions. 35:29 So these things must be for a statute of judgment on your throughout your generations, in all your dwellings.

35:30 Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the word⁹ of witnesses; but one witness cannot¹⁰ testify against any person to cause him to die. 35:31 Moreover, you must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; he must surely be put to death. 35:32 And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a city of refuge, that he should return home and live on his own land, before the death of the high priest.

35:33 You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it, 35:34 Do not therefore defile the land which you will inhabit, wherein I live, for I the LORD live among the Israelites.