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Joshua 20

Joshua 20 establishes refuge for those who kill without intent, placing protection from vengeance alongside public judgment.

YHWH tells Joshua to have Israel assign cities of refuge, carrying out the command given through Moses. A person who has killed someone without intent may flee to a city, present his case to its elders, and receive shelter from the avenger of blood. The instructions require judgment before the congregation and residence until the high priest’s death. Israel sets apart six cities on both sides of the Jordan, available to Israelites and foreigners living among them.

injustice and angersermon or Bible study notes
Read
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.
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Key verses
Joshua 20:3This verse states the cities’ purpose: shelter from the avenger of blood for a person who kills without intent.
Joshua 20:7Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron give the command concrete locations across Israel’s territory west of the Jordan.
Joshua 20:8The appointment of Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan extends the same provision to the tribes east of the Jordan.
Where this chapter reaches

Numbers and Deuteronomy give the laws for refuge after unintended killing, and 1 Chronicles names the same six cities among the towns assigned to Levites. Hebrews shares the image of fleeing for refuge, using it to describe taking hold of the hope God sets before his people.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out to you about the elders’ duty to shelter someone while judgment is still pending?

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How does the inclusion of foreigners shape your reading of Israel’s provision for refuge?

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Questions people ask about Joshua 20

Who is the avenger of blood in Joshua 20?

The avenger of blood is a relative of the person killed who seeks to avenge the death, a role described further in Numbers. Joshua 20 does not explain the role’s full limits. It commands protection for someone who killed without intent and requires a trial before the congregation.

Why did the person have to stay until the high priest died?

Joshua 20 makes the high priest’s death the point when the person may return home. The chapter does not explain why that event ends the required stay. Numbers gives the same rule and warns that leaving the refuge before then exposes the person to the avenger of blood.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).