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"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Designate1the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you throughMoses,
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that the manslayer who kills any personunintentionally, withoutpremeditation, may fleethere, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood.
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'He shall flee to one of thesecities, and shall stand at the entrance of the 2gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city; and they shall take him into the city to them and give him a place, so that he may dwellamong them.
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'Now 3if the avenger of bloodpursues him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighborwithoutpremeditation and did not hate him beforehand*.
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'He shall dwell in that city4until he standsbefore the congregation for judgment, until the death of the one who is highpriest in thosedays. Then the manslayer shall return* to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled.' "
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So they setapart5Kedesh in Galilee in the hillcountry of Naphtali and Shechem in the hillcountry of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron ) in 6the hillcountry of Judah.
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Beyond the Jordaneast of Jericho, they designatedBezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.
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7These were the appointedcities for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojournsamong them, that whoeverkills any personunintentionally may fleethere, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blooduntil he standsbefore the congregation.