1. “After the Lord your God has destroyed the people whose land he is giving you and after you have taken their cities and houses and settled there,
2-3. divide the territory into three parts, each with a city that can be easily reached. Then anyone who kills someone will be able to escape to one of them for protection.
4. If someone accidentally kills someone who is not an enemy, he may escape to any of these cities and be safe.
5. For example, if two men go into the forest together to cut wood and if, as one of them is chopping down a tree, the head of the axe comes off the handle and kills the other, he can run to one of those three cities and be safe.
6. If there were only one city, the distance to it might be too great, and the relative who is responsible for taking revenge for the killing might catch him and in his anger kill an innocent neighbour. After all, it was by accident that he killed his neighbour who was not his enemy.
7. This is why I order you to set aside three cities.
8. “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he told your ancestors he would, and gives you all the land he has promised,
9. then you are to select three more cities. (He will give you this land if you do everything that I command you today and if you love the Lord your God and live according to his teachings.)
10. Do this, so that innocent people will not die and so that you will not be guilty of putting them to death in the land that the Lord is giving you.
11. “But suppose someone deliberately murders an enemy in cold blood and then escapes to one of those cities for protection.
12. In that case, the leaders of his own town are to send for him and hand him over to the relative responsible for taking revenge for the murder, so that he may be put to death.