Joshua 20:1-9
1 The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:
3 That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
4 And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.
5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.
6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.
7 And they appointeda Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
8 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.
Joshua 20:2. Cities of refuge, all of which were inhabited by the levites. See on Numbers 35. Some heathen temples, and after them christian churches, were places of refuge. In the laws of king Ina, who reigned in the west of England, we have a scale of different fines imposed on those Saxon offenders, who took refuge in the churches.
Joshua 20:6. Till the death of the highpriest, who was prince of the sanctuary; and it was usual to liberate prisoners when a new prince ascended the throne. The rabbins by the multitude of their opinions declare, in fact, that they were ignorant of the spiritual import of this law, which all christians refer to the deliverance obtained for sinners by the death of Christ, our eternal Highpriest at the right hand of God.
REFLECTIONS.
The cities of refuge have already been considered, and reflections on their object and design may be found in Numbers 35. But it is here remarked, that they stood on hills. So the sinner will find salvation and deliverance in mount Zion.