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‘Tell the Israelite people to choose special cities as safe places. I told Moses that you should do this. Anyone can be safe in these cities if he has killed someone but he did not mean to kill. A person like that must run to one of these towns and he will be safe from the dead person's relative.[a]

The person who killed someone must go to the special city. When he arrives, he must stand at the gate of the city. There he must tell the leaders what he has done. Then they must take him into the city. They must give him a place to stay so that he can live there.

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Footnotes

  1. 20:3 Moses' law said that anyone who killed somebody must die. See Leviticus 24:17. A relative of the dead person had to kill him. See Numbers 35:6-34.

“Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally(A) may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.(B) When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate(C) and state their case before the elders(D) of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them.

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