Joshua20chapter 20

Joshua 20:1-3

Verse 2 says outright that this carries out an older command, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses, and the law it executes is Numbers 35:9-34 with Deuteronomy 19:1-13 behind it. The order comes after the allotment of chapters 13 to 19, so the six towns exist with borders and owners before they are named as refuges. The phrase cities of refuge is first used at Numbers 35:11 and the avenger of blood at Deuteronomy 19:12, which places this chapter at the end of a chain rather than the head of one. The avenger is the goel, the same kinsman word that redeems land at Leviticus 25:25 and a man at Leviticus 25:48, turned here toward blood.

Joshua 20:4-6

The gate is where the elders sat to hear cases, so the man states his cause to a court and the protection turns on a hearing rather than on the ground he stands on. Two separate examinations are described: the elders receive him at verse 4, and verse 6 sends him to stand before the congregation for judgment, which Numbers 35:24-25 locates with the community where the death occurred. Barnes reads the first as a provisional reception and the second as the full trial. Release comes at the death of the high priest and at no other point, so the length of the exile is fixed by one man's life instead of by the offence.

Joshua 20:7-9

Three cities stand west of Jordan and three east, spaced north, middle and south, which is what Deuteronomy 19:3 asked for when it required the roads prepared and the land divided in three. All six appear again in chapter 21 as Levite towns, so the men who take in the fugitive belong to the tribe with no inheritance of its own. The three eastern cities were already set apart by Moses at Deuteronomy 4:41-43 under these same names, Bezer and Ramoth and Golan, so half the appointment was made before the river was crossed. Verse 9 opens all six to the stranger that sojourneth among them on the same terms as the Israelite, which Numbers 35:15 had also said.