then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there.
Parallel translations
- WEB then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
- KJV Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.
- BSB designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.
- NASB then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, so that the one who commits manslaughter by killing a person unintentionally may flee there.
- NLT designate cities of refuge to which people can flee if they have killed someone accidentally.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel is to appoint cities of refuge where one who kills a person unintentionally may flee. These cities provide asylum for accidental killing.
Overview
The cities of refuge distinguished between deliberate murder and unintentional manslaughter, protecting the latter from immediate retribution. This careful distinction reflects the justice of God, who weighs intent in judging the taking of life. The refuge granted to the innocent points to the safety found in Christ, our refuge from judgment (Hebrews 6:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Exod 21:13but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
- Num 35:6“The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.
- Josh 20:2“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,
- Num 35:22–25“‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,
- Deut 4:42that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
- Deut 19:1–13When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 35:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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