And יהוה spoke to Mosheh in the plains of Mo'av by the Yarden near Yeriḥo, saying:

Command the children of Yisra'el and they shall give to the Levi'im from the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in, and pastureland for the cities around them you shall give to the Levi'im.

And the cities shall be for them to dwell in, and their pasturelands shall be for their livestock and for their possessions and for all their living things.

And the pasturelands of the cities which you shall give to the Levi'im, from the wall of the city and outward, a thousand cubits all around.

And you shall measure from outside the city, the east side two thousand cubits, and the south side two thousand cubits, and the west side two thousand cubits, and the north side two thousand cubits, and the city in the middle; this shall be for them, the pasturelands of the cities.

And the cities which you shall give to the Levi'im, the six cities of refuge which you shall give for the manslayer to flee there, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.

All the cities which you shall give to the Levi'im, forty-eight cities, them and their pasturelands.

And the cities which you shall give from the possession of the children of Yisra'el, from the many you shall give much, and from the few you shall give little; each according to his inheritance which he shall inherit, he shall give from his cities to the Levi'im.

And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying:

Speak to the children of Yisra'el and say to them, 'When you cross the Yarden into the land of Kena'an,

then you shall designate for yourselves cities, cities of refuge they shall be for you, and there a manslayer who strikes a soul unintentionally may flee.

And the cities shall be for you as refuge from the avenger, and the manslayer shall not die until he stands before the assembly for judgment.

And the cities which you shall give, six cities of refuge they shall be for you.

Three cities you shall give across the Yarden, and three cities you shall give in the land of Kena'an, cities of refuge they shall be.

For the children of Yisra'el, and for the sojourner and the resident among them, these six cities shall be for refuge, for anyone to flee there who strikes a soul unintentionally.

And if he strikes him with an iron tool and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.

And if he strikes him with a stone in his hand, by which he may die, and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.

Or if he strikes him with a wooden tool in his hand, by which he may die, and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.

The blood avenger, he shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

And if he pushes him with hatred, or throws something at him intentionally and he dies,

or strikes him with enmity by his hand and he dies, the striker shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

But if he pushes him suddenly without enmity, or throws any tool at him without intention,

or with any stone by which he may die, without seeing, and he drops it on him and he dies, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm,

then the assembly shall judge between the striker and the blood avenger according to these judgments.

And the assembly shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the blood avenger, and the assembly shall return him to the city of his refuge where he fled, and he shall dwell there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

But if the manslayer goes out beyond the boundary of the city of his refuge where he fled,

and the blood avenger finds him outside the boundary of his city of refuge, and the blood avenger kills the manslayer, there is no bloodguilt for him,

because he should have dwelt in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest, the manslayer shall return to the land of his possession.

And these shall be for you as a statute of judgment for your generations in all your dwelling places.

Anyone who strikes a soul, according to the testimony of witnesses, shall kill the murderer; but one witness shall not testify against a soul to die.

And you shall not accept ransom for the soul of a murderer who is guilty of death, for he shall surely be put to death.

And you shall not accept ransom for one who has fled to the city of his refuge, to return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.

And you shall not defile the land in which you are, because blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be atoned for the blood that was shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

And you shall not defile the land in which you dwell, in the midst of which I dwell, for I am יהוה who dwells among the children of Yisra'el.