Joshua Chapter 20

Six Cities of refuge appointed

20:1 YEHOVAH Hebrew יְהֹוָה‎ Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton יהוה is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD also spoke to Joshua (/ˈdʒɒʃuə/) also known as Yehoshua (Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ Yəhōšuaʿ, Tiberian: Yŏhōšuaʿ, lit. ‘Yahweh is salvation’) Yeshua or Y’shua (ישוע; with vowel pointing Hebrew: יֵשׁוּעַ, romanized: Yēšūaʿ) was a common alternative form of the name Yehoshua (Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, romanized: Yəhōšūaʿ, lit. ’Joshua’) in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), from which, through the Latin IESVS/Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus meaning salvation., saying,
20:2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spoke to you by the hand of Moses
20:3 That the slayer that kills [any] person unawares [and] unwittingly may flee there and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
20:4 And when he that does flee to one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city to them, and give him a place, that he may stay among them.
20:5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand ; because he struck his neighbor unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.
20:6 And he shall stay in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, [and] until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days then shall the slayer return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city from what place he fled.
20:7 And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which [is] Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
20:8 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
20:9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that temporary stays among them, that whom ever kills [any] person at unawares might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.