Summary
The chapter opens with the Lord instructing Moses to give the Levites a share of the Israelites’ cities and surrounding suburbs, providing specific measurements for the suburbs. It then establishes six cities of refuge—three on each side of the Jordan—where a manslayer may flee to avoid immediate retribution. The text explains that these cities serve all Israelites, foreigners, and sojourners, and it sets out a comprehensive legal framework: when a person is killed unintentionally, the perpetrator is protected in the city of refuge; if he violates the boundary, he is liable to death. The congregation’s judgment is to determine if the act was accidental or intentional, and witnesses are required—one witness cannot condemn a person. The law also forbids taking vengeance for a murderer’s life, condemns settling for the blood of a murderer, and stresses that the land is defiled by blood and must remain holy. These statutes are to be upheld for all generations.