Joshua 20:1-9

YAHWEH instructed Joshua: “A person who accidentally and unintentionally kills someone will need a place of asylum—a city where he can run for safety. Otherwise, the dead man’s relatives will kill him.” So now YAHWEH said to Joshua, “Tell the people of Israel to choose these cities of asylum as I instructed you through Moses. The one who has committed manslaughter shall escape for protection to one of these cities and stand at the entrance to the city gates and explain his case to the leaders of the city. The leaders must then receive him into their city and grant him asylum. When the one looking for revenge comes after him, the leaders of the city must protect him and not hand him over, for he killed the person accidentally and without premeditation. He must remain in the city until he has had a public trial; then he must remain protected in the city until the man who is high priest at that time has died. Afterward, he may return to his family and his own hometown.” So they dedicated three cities on the west side of the Jordan River: Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they dedicated Bezer in the desert plain belonging to the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the designated cities of refuge. Any Israelite or any foreigner living among them who had accidentally killed someone could run to one of these cities for protection. He could live there safely until he had a fair trial, and unless he had been proven guilty, he could not be killed by the one seeking revenge.