Cities of Refuge
18 passages listed in Nave’s Topical Bible and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook. Verse text: Berean Standard Bible; links open in your translation.
10 sections
- (The Way To) Christ
- Afforded No Asylum to Murderers
- Design of
- Names of
- Required to Be: Easy of Access
- Required to Be: Open to all Manslayers
- Strangers Might Take Advantage of
- Those Admitted to not Protected Outside of
- Those Admitted to Obliged to Remain In, Until the High Priest's Death
- Those Admitted to Were Put on Their Trial
(The Way To) Christ
- Isaiah 35:8 And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it — only those who walk in the Way — and fools will not stray onto it.
- John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Afforded No Asylum to Murderers
- Exodus 21:14 But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
- Numbers 35:16–21 If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. …
Design of
- Exodus 21:13 If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
- Numbers 35:11 designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.
- Joshua 20:3 so that anyone who kills another unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
Names of
- Deuteronomy 4:41–43 Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east …
- Joshua 20:7–8 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. …
Required to Be: Easy of Access
- Deuteronomy 19:3 You are to build roads for yourselves and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities.
- Isaiah 62:10 Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!
Required to Be: Open to all Manslayers
- Joshua 20:4 When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before its elders, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them.
Strangers Might Take Advantage of
- Numbers 35:15 These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
Those Admitted to not Protected Outside of
- Numbers 35:26–27 But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled …
Those Admitted to Obliged to Remain In, Until the High Priest's Death
- Numbers 35:25 The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed …
- Numbers 35:28 because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.
Those Admitted to Were Put on Their Trial
- Numbers 35:12 You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.
- Numbers 35:24 then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
Related topics
CitiesCities of Refuge of ChristCities of Refuge of the Hope of the GospelRefugeAvenger of BloodHomicide
Topics: Nave’s Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook (1897), public domain, via the Berean Bible topical index.