1Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,
1避難城（參民35:9~28；申19:1~13）耶和華對約書亞說：
2“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,
2“你要告訴以色列人：‘你們要照著我藉著摩西命令你們的，為自己設立避難城，
3that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.
3好使那出於錯誤、並非蓄意殺人的，可以逃到那裡去；這些城要成為你們逃避報血仇的人的避難所。
4He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them.
4那殺人的要逃到這些城中的一座，站在城門口，把自己的事情向城中的眾長老述說，長老就要把他接入城中，到他們那裡，並要給他地方，使他可以住在他們中間。
5If the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver up the manslayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before.
5如果報血仇的人追趕他，長老不可把他交在報血仇的人手裡，因為他並非蓄意殺人，他以前與他並沒有仇恨。
6He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the manslayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’”
6那殺人的要住在那城裡，直到他站在會眾面前受審；等到當時的大祭司死了，才可以回到本城本家，回到他逃出來的城那裡。’”
7They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.
7於是以色列人在拿弗他利山地，把加利利的基低斯分別出來；在以法蓮山地，把示劍分別出來；在猶大山地，把基列．亞巴分別出來，基列．亞巴就是希伯崙；
8Beyond 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.
8又在約旦河東，耶利哥的東面，從流本支派中，指定在曠野平原上的比悉；從迦得支派中，指定在基列的拉末；從瑪拿西支派中，指定在巴珊的哥蘭。
9These 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 before the congregation.
9這些都是為所有的以色列人，和在他們中間寄居的外族人所指定的城，讓誤殺人的可以逃到那裡，不致死在報血仇的人手裡，直到他站在會眾面前受審為止。