Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood.


The Lord told Joshua, "Don't be afraid and don't panic! Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! See, I am handing over to you the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land. Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!"

After Moses the Lord's servant died, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant: "Moses my servant is dead. Get ready! Cross the Jordan River! Lead these people into the land which I am ready to hand over to them. I am handing over to you every place you set foot, as I promised Moses. read more.
Your territory will extend from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north. It will extend all the way to the great River Euphrates in the east (including all of Syria) and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone. Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them. Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. I repeat, be strong and brave! Don't be afraid and don't panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do."

The Lord told Joshua, "See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, along with its king and its warriors. Have all the warriors march around the city one time; do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. read more.
When you hear the signal from the ram's horn, have the whole army give a loud battle cry. Then the city wall will collapse and the warriors should charge straight ahead."

The Lord responded to Joshua, "Get up! Why are you lying there face down? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! They have taken some of the riches; they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions. The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation. I will no longer be with you, unless you destroy what has contaminated you. read more.
Get up! Ritually consecrate the people and tell them this: 'Ritually consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord God of Israel says, "You are contaminated, O Israel! You will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove what is contaminating you." In the morning you must approach in tribal order. The tribe the Lord selects must approach by clans. The clan the Lord selects must approach by families. The family the Lord selects must approach man by man. The one caught with the riches must be burned up along with all who belong to him, because he violated the Lord's covenant and did such a disgraceful thing in Israel.'"

The Lord instructed Joshua: "Have the Israelites select the cities of refuge that I told you about through Moses. Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood. read more.
The one who committed manslaughter should escape to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the city gate, and present his case to the leaders of that city. They should then bring him into the city, give him a place to stay, and let him live there. When the avenger of blood comes after him, they must not hand over to him the one who committed manslaughter, for he accidentally killed his fellow man without premeditation. He must remain in that city until his case is decided by the assembly and the high priest dies. Then the one who committed manslaughter may return home to the city from which he escaped."


Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east. Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe. These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.

The Lord instructed Joshua: "Have the Israelites select the cities of refuge that I told you about through Moses. Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood. read more.
The one who committed manslaughter should escape to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the city gate, and present his case to the leaders of that city. They should then bring him into the city, give him a place to stay, and let him live there. When the avenger of blood comes after him, they must not hand over to him the one who committed manslaughter, for he accidentally killed his fellow man without premeditation. He must remain in that city until his case is decided by the assembly and the high priest dies. Then the one who committed manslaughter may return home to the city from which he escaped."

But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee. And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community. These towns that you must give shall be your six towns for refuge. read more.
"You must give three towns on this side of the Jordan, and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be towns of refuge. These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there. "But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death. If he strikes him by throwing a stone large enough that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death. Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon so that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death. The avenger of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him. "But if he strikes him out of hatred or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies, or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him. "But if he strikes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws anything at him unintentionally, or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm, then the community must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions. The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil. But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled, and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood, because the slayer should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions. So these things must be a statutory ordinance for you throughout your generations, in all the places where you live. "Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony of witnesses; but one witness cannot testify against any person to cause him to be put to death. Moreover, you must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; he must surely be put to death. And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession. You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities. Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident. read more.
Suppose he goes with someone else to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose from the handle and strikes his fellow worker so hard that he dies. The person responsible may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, and kill him, though this is not a capital case since he did not hate him at the time of the accident. Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land he pledged to them, and then you are careful to observe all these commandments I am giving you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities to these three. You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities. The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die. You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.