20 Then Yahweh told Yehoshua,[ref] 2 “Tell the Israelis to select some cities that people can flee to in order to be safe, just as I instructed you through Mosheh, 3 so that if someone accidentally kills someone else, they can escape there and be safe from the dead person’s family. 4 When that person flees to one of these cities, they must stand at the city gate and tell the elders there what happened. Then they should bring the person into the city and give them a place there to live in. 5 Now if a relative of the deceased comes to avenge the death, the city elders won’t hand over the killer because the death was accidental and didn’t happen because of hate or premeditation. 6 So then that person must stay in the city until they’re brought before the panel of judges. If they decide that the death wasn’t deliberate, the person must remain in that city until the death of the high priest, then they can freely return to their own city and own home.”

7 So the Israelis chose Kedesh (in the Galilee region in the hill country of Naftali) and Shekem (in the hill country of Efraim) and Kiriat-Arba (now called Hebron, in the hill country of Yehudah). 8 On the other side of the Yordan river, they chose Betser (in the wilderness on the plateau from the tribe of Reuben), Ramot (in the Gilead from the tribe of Gad), and Golan (in the Bashan from the tribe of Manashsheh). 9 Those were the appointed cities for both Israelis and foreigners living among them, so that anyone who accidentally killed someone could flee there and be safe from being avenged by the deceased’s relatives until they could receive a proper trial.