Context No. 2815 of 4322 · Joshua

Joshua 20:1-9: in context

1The LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, 2“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, 3that the man slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood. 4He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them. 5If the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver up the man slayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before. 6He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the man slayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’” 7They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. 8Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 9These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands trial before the congregation.

God tells Joshua to set apart the cities of refuge that Moses had commanded, places where a person who killed another accidentally could flee from the avenger of blood. The manslayer runs to the city, states his case at the gate to the elders, and is taken in and given a place to live, safe until he can stand trial before the assembly. Six cities are spread across the land so one is always within reach.

This is careful justice woven into a violent age. The law draws a firm line between the accidental and the deliberate, and it refuses to let raw grief become a license for revenge. It gives the accused a safe place to stay while the truth is sorted out, protection from vengeance carried out before any hearing. And notice that the refuge is open even to the foreigner living among them. Mercy and fair judgment are built right into the map of the land, deliberately placed within everyone's reach.

Do I make room for mercy and a fair hearing before judgment, or let the first rush of anger settle the matter?

Sources

Joshua 20:9: "That whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands trial before the congregation."
Numbers 35:12: "The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment."
Hebrews 6:18: "We... have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us."