In our study of Joshua chapter twenty, we look at the cities of refuge and the penalty for accidentally killing someone.
Now, if God speaks to you in this study, you can save your own personal notes on this page. Then, every time that you look at this study, your notes will automatically be added to the page. To add a note or to display your previous notes, click on the YOUR NOTES button.
ADONAI said to Y'hoshua, "Tell the people of Isra'el, 'Select the cities of refuge about which I spoke to you through Moshe; so that anyone who kills someone by mistake and unknowingly may escape there; they will serve as refuges for you from the next-of-kin avenger. He is to flee to one of those cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate and state his cause to the city leaders. Then they will bring him into the city with them and give him a place, so that he may live among them.
The Lord told Israel to choose the cities of refuge and these had been mentioned by Moshe (see Numbers 35 & Deuteronomy 19). These cities would be a place that someone who had killed another person but it was an accident and he did not intend to do so could flee to. These cities would be a place of justice where the killer would go and stand at the gate of the city (place of judgement) and tell the leaders what had happened. If the judges determined that there was, in fact, no intent to kill the other person, then, the killer would be taken into the city. These were not ordinary cities and the killer would not live an ordinary life and send for their family for a new start.
If the next-of-kin avenger pursues him, they are not to hand over the killer to him; because he struck his fellow community member unknowingly and had not hated him previously. So he will live in that city until he stands trial before the community, until the death of the cohen hagadol who is in office at the time. When that time comes, the killer may return to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.'"
If a family member of the victim pursued the killer to avenge the death and came to the city of refuge, the killer would not be turned over to the avenger because there had been no intent to kill the person and there was no reckless behavior on the part of the killer. The killer would stay there until the time when the current high priest died and then he would return to his original home. During the time in the city of refuge, it was like the killer was under what we would call house arrest. In these cities, there would be like a compound where the Levites lived and that would have been where the killer stayed during his time in the city.
So they set apart Kedesh in the Galil, in the hills of Naftali; Sh'khem in the hills of Efrayim; and Kiryat-Arba (that is, Hevron) in the hills of Y'hudah. Beyond the Yarden east of Yericho they selected Betzer in the desert, on the plateau, out of the tribe of Re'uven; Ramot in Gil'ad out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of M'nasheh. These were the cities selected for all the people of Isra'el and for the foreigner living among them, so that anyone who kills any person by mistake could flee there and not die at the hand of the next-of-kin avenger prior to standing trial before the community.
Now, we see that there were three of these cities on the west side of the Jordan River and three on the east side for a total of six. We are reminded that the number six is associated with the insufficiency of the works of man and the need for grace. According to tradition, the three cities of refuge on the west side of the Jordan were implemented but, although the three on the east side of the Jordan were designated, they were not practically implemented. It is said that the three on the east will be implemented during the millennial reign of Yeshua Messiah.
Read about what we do with the data we gather and the rules you agree to by using this website in our privacy policy.