“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.

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. ¹ 

The Amorite inhabitants of that area ¹  confronted ²  you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah. ³ 

Anyone who accidentally killed someone ¹  without hating him at the time of the accident ²  could flee to one of those cities and be safe.

then he ¹  will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ¹  if he has accidentally killed another ²  without hating him at the time of the accident. ³ 

However, suppose a person hates someone else ¹  and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, ²  and then flees to one of these cities.

The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ¹  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ²  but flee from you in seven different directions.

The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ¹  as the eagle flies, ²  a nation whose language you will not understand,

Like an eagle that stirs up ¹  its nest, that hovers over its young, so the Lord ²  spread out his wings and took him, ³  he lifted him up on his pinions.

I and all the troops ¹  who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them.

Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; ¹  these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood.

When Adoni-Bezek ran away, they chased him and captured him. Then they cut off his thumbs and big toes.

Now Sisera ran away on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, for King Jabin of Hazor ¹  and the family of Heber the Kenite had made a peace treaty. ² 

The Kishon River carried them off; the river confronted them ¹  – the Kishon River. Step on the necks of the strong! ² 

They stood in order ¹  all around the camp. The whole army ran away; they shouted as they scrambled away. ² 

When Zebah and Zalmunna ran away, Gideon ¹  chased them and captured the two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna. He had surprised ²  their entire army.

There was a fortified ¹  tower ²  in the center of the city, so all the men and women, as well as the city’s leaders, ran into it and locked the entrance. Then they went up to the roof of the tower.

So Jephthah left ¹  his half-brothers ²  and lived in the land of Tob. Lawless men joined Jephthah’s gang and traveled with him. ³