A City of Refuge is a place where those among the Israelite people who accidentally killed someone could flee to preserve their lives. In ancient times, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" retribution was common, so if someone killed another, the relatives of the deceased victim would seek to kill the perpetrator for revenge. At that time, if the killing was accidental, the person was not handed over to be killed but was allowed to stay in a City of Refuge to prevent their death. However, the perpetrator also had to remain within this City of Refuge to avoid being killed, so they effectively had to live a life no different from imprisonment.
Numbers 35:11The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.Numbers 35:12The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.
Numbers 35:16If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.Numbers 35:17Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.Numbers 35:18The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death.Numbers 35:19If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died,Numbers 35:20or in hostility struck him with his hand, so that he died, he who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.Numbers 35:21“ ‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,
Numbers 35:13You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.Numbers 35:14For the children of Israel), and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
베셀, 길르앗 라못, 골란, 게데스, 세겜, 헤브론이 다.
Joshua 20:6They 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.Joshua 20:7Beyond 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.Joshua 20:8These 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.
Numbers 35:5“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.
Numbers 35:32“ ‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.