Joshua 20 King James Version (KJV)
20 The Lord also spake unto Joshua, saying,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:
3 That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
4 And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.
5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.
6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.
7 And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
8 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.
Commentary
Cities for the Levites (20:1-21:45)
The Levites were given forty-eight cities throughout Israel, along with surrounding pasture lands for their cattle (see 21:41-42; Num 35:1-8). Among these cities were six cities of refuge (Num 35:6). These were cities where a person who had killed another could flee for safety until he had been lawfully judged (Exod 21:12-14). If he was found guilty of murder he was to be executed, but if he was found to have caused the death accidentally, he could live in the city of refuge under the protection of the chief priest as long as that priest lived. This limited his freedom, but at the same time it ensured that he was safe from the revenge of the dead person’s family (20:1-6; Num 35:9-34).
Three of the cities of refuge were west of Jordan and three east. In both the western and eastern regions one city was in the northern section, one in the central and one in the southern (7-9; Num 35:14- 15).
Levi had three sons, Kohath, Gershon and Merari. Aaron was of the family of Kohath, and all Aaron’s descendants, and no others, were priests (Exod 6:16,18,20; Num 3:10). The forty-eight cities of the Levites were therefore divided into four groups, which corresponded to the four divisions of the Levitical tribe: the priestly Kohathites, the non-priestly Kohathites, the Gershonites and the Merarites (21:1-7).
The drawing of lots decided the allocation of the cities (8), but God controlled the outcome so that the cities given to the priestly Kohathites were all within easy reach of Jerusalem, where the temple would one day be built (9-19). The non-priestly Kohathites were farther from Jerusalem (20-26), the Gershonites were mainly in the north (27-33) and the Merarites were mainly in the north and east (34-40). Once the Levites had received their cities, the allotment of Canaan was complete (41-45).