The Promised Land · c. 1400 BC
Chapter 8
Cities of Refuge
Nothing failed of any good thing which Yahweh had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
For parents
The chapter opens with the law for someone who has killed a person by accident, and the avenger of blood who may come after him (Joshua 20:1–9). Later the rest of Israel gathers at Shiloh to go to war against the tribes east of the Jordan over an altar they have built, and Israel’s leaders remind them of the plague at Peor and the deaths that followed Achan’s sin (22:12–20). No fighting happens (22:33).
The spoke to . “Speak to the ,” he said. “Tell them to set apart the I told them about through . Anyone who kills a person by accident, without meaning to, can run there. In those cities they will be safe from the .
“The one who killed is to run to one of those cities and stand at the entrance to the city gate. There he is to tell the city’s what happened. They are to take him into the city with them and give him a place to live among them.
“If the avenger of blood chases him, they are not to hand him over, because he struck his neighbor without meaning to, and he hadn’t hated him before. He is to live in that city until he stands before the community to be judged. He is to stay until the who is serving in those days has died. Then the one who killed will go back to his own town and his own house, the town he ran away from.”
They set apart three cities: in , in the hill country of ; in the hill country of ; and Kiriath Arba, also called , in the hill country of .
On the east side of the , across from , they chose , in the wilderness on the plain, from the tribe of ; in , from the tribe of ; and from the tribe of , in .
These were the cities chosen for all the Israelites, and for any foreigner living among them. Anyone who killed a person without meaning to could run there, so that the avenger of blood would not kill him before he had stood trial in front of the community.
Then the heads of the families came to the , to Joshua son of , and to the family heads of Israel’s . They spoke with them at , in the land of . “Through Moses, the Lord commanded that we should have cities to live in,” they said, “with their pasture lands for our livestock.”
From their own share of the land, the Israelites gave the Levites these cities with their pasture lands, as the Lord had commanded. The cities were handed out by , and the first lot went to the families of . The descendants of the priest, who were Levites, received thirteen cities from Judah, and . The other Kohathites received ten cities from Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. The descendants of received thirteen, from , and Naphtali, and from the half of Manasseh in Bashan. ’s descendants, family by family, received twelve, from Reuben, Gad and . That is how the Israelites gave the Levites these cities and their pasture lands by lot, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.
Aaron’s descendants, the priests, had the first lot, and they received nine cities from Judah and Simeon. One was Kiriath Arba, also called Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the pasture lands around it. It was one of the cities of refuge. But the city’s fields and villages went to son of . From Benjamin the priests received four more cities, among them. In all, Aaron’s descendants had thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
The rest of Kohath’s descendants, who were Levites too, received their cities by lot. From the tribe of Ephraim they received four. One of them was Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, which was a city of refuge. Four more came from the tribe of Dan, and two from the half-tribe of Manasseh: ten cities in all, with their pasture lands.
The families of Gershon received two cities from the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan, which was a city of refuge, and one more. They received four cities from Issachar, four from Asher, and three from Naphtali. One of those was Kedesh in Galilee, also a city of refuge. The Gershonites had thirteen cities in all, with their pasture lands.
The families of Merari, the rest of the Levites, received four cities from Zebulun. From Reuben they received four more, among them Bezer and . From Gad they received Ramoth in Gilead, a city of refuge, along with , and . In all, their lot was twelve cities.
All together, the Levites had forty-eight cities with their pasture lands, among the lands the Israelites owned. Every one of these cities had its pasture lands around it. It was the same with all of them.
So the Lord gave Israel all the land he swore to give to their ancestors. They took it as their own, and they lived in it. The Lord gave them peace on all sides, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not a single one of their enemies could hold out against them. The Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Of all the good things the Lord had said to the people of Israel, not one failed. Every one came true.
Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. “You have kept everything that Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded you,” he said to them, “and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded you. All this long time, right up to today, you haven’t left your brothers. You have done everything the Lord your God gave you to do.
“Now the Lord your God has given your brothers peace, as he told them he would. So go back home now, to the land that is yours, the land that Moses the Lord’s servant gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
“Only be sure to carry out the commandment and the law that Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you: to love the Lord your God, to follow all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold on to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Then Joshua gave them his blessing and sent them off, and they went home.
Moses had given land in Bashan to one half of the tribe of Manasseh, but Joshua had given the other half their land west of the Jordan, among their brothers. When Joshua sent them home across the Jordan, he blessed them and said to them, “Go home with great riches: with large herds and flocks, with silver and gold, bronze and iron, and a great deal of clothing. Share the plunder you took from your enemies with your brothers.”
The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh turned for home. They parted from the rest of the Israelites and set out from Shiloh, in the land of Canaan. They were going to the land of Gilead, their own land, which they had received by the Lord’s command through Moses.
When the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh came to the region near the Jordan, in the land of Canaan, they built an there beside the river. It was a huge altar, impressive to look at.
Word reached the Israelites: “Look! Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the edge of the land of Canaan, in the region around the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the Israelites.” When the Israelites heard it, the whole community of Israel came together at Shiloh to go to war against them.
The Israelites sent , the son of Eleazar the priest, to them in the land of Gilead. With him went ten leaders, one for each tribe of Israel. Each one was the head of his family within Israel’s “thousands,” its large family groups.
Phinehas and the leaders came to them in the land of Gilead and spoke with them. “This is what the whole community of the Lord says,” they said. “What is this wrong you have done against the God of Israel? Today you have turned away from following the Lord. You have built yourselves an altar to rebel against the Lord today.
“Wasn’t the sin of enough for us? We still haven’t cleansed ourselves of it, to this day, even though a came on the Lord’s community. And now, today, do you have to turn away from following the Lord? You are rebelling against the Lord today, so tomorrow he will be angry with all Israel.
“If the land you own is , then cross over into the land that belongs to the Lord, where the Lord’s stands, and take land of your own among us. But don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t rebel against us, by building any altar other than the Lord our God’s altar.
“When the son of did wrong over the things, didn’t anger fall on the whole community of Israel? He didn’t die alone for his sin.”
Then the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh gave their answer to the heads of Israel’s thousands. “The Mighty One, God, the Lord!” they said. “The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and Israel will know. If we did this in rebellion, or as a wrong against the Lord, don’t spare us today. If we have built ourselves an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or to offer or , or to offer of , let the Lord himself make us pay for it.
“We did it because we were worried, and we had a reason. In time to come, we thought, your children might say to our children, ‘What does the Lord, the God of Israel, have to do with you? You people of Reuben and Gad, the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you. You have no share in the Lord.’ That way your children might make our children stop .
“So we said, ‘Let’s get to work and build ourselves an altar. It won’t be for burnt offerings or for sacrifices. It will be a witness between us and you, and between those who come after us, that we will worship the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings, our sacrifices and our peace offerings.’ Then in time to come your children won’t tell our children, ‘You have no share in the Lord.’
“And we said that if anyone ever says this to us or our children, we will answer, ‘Look at this altar our ancestors made. It is built like the Lord’s altar, but it isn’t for burnt offerings or sacrifices. It is a witness between us and you.’
“We would never rebel against the Lord! We would never turn away from following him today and build an altar for burnt offerings, meal offerings or sacrifices, other than the Lord our God’s altar, the one in front of his tabernacle!”
With Phinehas the priest were the community’s leaders, the heads of Israel’s thousands. When they all heard what the people of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh said, they were well pleased.
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, told them, “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not done this wrong against the Lord. Now you have kept the Israelites from being punished by the Lord.”
Then Phinehas and the leaders left Gilead and the people of Reuben and Gad. They went back to the Israelites in the land of Canaan and reported to them.
The Israelites were pleased with what they heard, and they praised God. They said no more about going to war against the people of Reuben and Gad to destroy the land they lived in.
The Reubenites and the Gadites named the altar “A Witness Between Us that the Lord is God.”