Joshuachapter 20
9 verses · BSBJoshua book hub →
Key verse
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.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 6.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Six cities of refuge are appointed at Jehovah's word through Moses (Kedesh in Galilee, Shechem, and Kiriath-arba (Hebron) west of Jordan; Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead, and Golan in Bashan to the east) so that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. He stands at the entrance of the gate and states his cause in the ears of the elders, is taken in, and is not delivered to the avenger of blood until he has stood before the congregation for judgment; he dwells there until the death of the high priest. The church has long read the arrangement as a picture of refuge secured by a priest's death.
Context
History · Joshua · Joshua overview
Where the chapter sits
Joshua 20 falls in Tribal allotments (chapters 13–22). The east-of-Jordan and west-of-Jordan inheritances; Levitical cities; cities of refuge; the altar of Ed and the east-tribe controversy.
Cities of refuge. Six cities for the manslayer; the mechanism of covenant justice inside the Land.
Before it: Conquest campaigns, chapters 6–12. After it: Covenant renewal at Shechem, chapters 23–24.
The whole shape of Joshua→The world behind this chapter
Joshua 20The history
Six towns are named: Kedesh in Galilee, Shechem in the central hills, and Kiriath-arba, that is Hebron, in the south, with Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead, and Golan already set apart east of the river. They are spaced so that no part of the country is more than a hard day's travel from one.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The procedure is spelled out. The man who killed someone unintentionally runs to the gate of the city, stands there, and states his case in the hearing of the elders. They take him in and give him a place to live. This is a preliminary hearing at the town gate, the ordinary courtroom of that world.
He is not simply released. He stays in the refuge city until he stands trial before the congregation, and if cleared, until the death of the high priest serving at the time. That is real confinement, he cannot go home, work his own land, or resume his life.
The release at the high priest's death tied the end of one man's exile to the end of another man's ministry. It set a limit nobody could manipulate: neither the family of the dead man nor the family of the killer could hurry or delay it.
What it meant to them
First hearers lived in a world where a killing had to be answered by the family, immediately. This system did not abolish that duty; it interrupted it long enough for the facts to be heard.
The provision is also explicitly open to the foreigner living among them. A stranger who killed someone by accident had the same right of refuge as an Israelite.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. Cities of refuge for the man who kills unawares
1. (vv. 1-3)
Joshua 20:2, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joshua 20:2
“Cities of refuge - An institution of this kind was essentially necessary wherever the patriarchal law relative to the right of redemption and the avenging of blood was in force; we have already seen that the nearest of kin to a deceased person had not only the right of redeeming an inheritance that had been forfeited or alienated, but had also authority to slay on the spot the person who had slain his relative.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 20:2
“Appoint - The possessions being now divided among you, reserve some of them for the use which I have commanded. Cities of refuge - Designed to typify the relief which the gospel provides for poor, penitent sinners, and their protection from the curse of the law and the wrath of God, in our Lord Jesus, to whom believers fly for refuge.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 20:3, 1 voice
Joshua 20:3
“The same thing twice repeated to cut off all the expectations that wilful murderers might have of protection here; God having declared, that such should be taken even from his altar, that they might be killed. It is strange that any Christians should make their sanctuaries give protection to such persons whom God hath so expressly excepted from it!”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
a.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.
2. (vv. 4-6)
Joshua 20:4, 3 voices
Joshua 20:4
“As soon as the manslayer presented himself at the city of refuge, the elders of the city were to hold an inquiry, and receive him provisionally into the city. Afterward, when the avenger of blood should have tracked his victim to the city, and appear to claim him, a more formal and thorough investigation Jos 20:6 was to be made. Consult the marginal references.”
Joshua 20:4
“If found guilty, the manslayer was surrendered to the blood-avenger; if extenuating circumstances appeared, he was to remain in the city of refuge, where he would be safe from the vindictive feelings of his pursuers; but he forfeited the privilege of immunity the moment he ventured beyond the walls.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joshua 20:4
“The gate - Where the Judges used to sit. His cause - Shall give them a true relation of the fact, and all its circumstances. They shall take him - If they are satisfied in the relation he makes, concerning the fact, otherwise it had been a vain thing to examine.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 20:6, 3 voices
Joshua 20:6
“There remains … what Scripture says concerning the death of the chief priest, "that the homicide shall be in the city of refuge even to that time, until the high priest dies." In this passage the literal interpretation causes difficulty. First, the period of flight is limited by chance rather than by any consideration of fairness; further, in like cases the result is unlike. For it could happen that the high priest might die on the day after the homicide took refuge. However, what is the meaning beneath the uncertainty?”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 2.13patristic
Joshua 20:6
“Lastly, the people were accustomed to detest murder, since homicide, even when not culpable, was followed by exile from country and home, till the death of the high priest. For that temporary exile clearly showed how precious human blood is in the sight of God. Thus the law was just, equitable, and useful, as well in a public as in a private point of view.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Joshua 20:6
“Stand - Which was the posture of the accused and accusers. The congregation - The council appointed to judge of these matters, not the council of the city of refuge, for they had examined him before, ver. 4, but of the city to which he belonged, or in or nigh which the fact was committed, as appears from Num. xxxv, 25.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
a.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.
B. Six cities named on both sides of Jordan
1. (vv. 7-9)
Joshua 20:7, 3 voices
Joshua 20:7
“They appointed Kedesh in Galilee - The cities of refuge were distributed through the land at proper distances from each other that they might be convenient to every part of the land; and it is said they were situated on eminences, that they might be easily seen at a distance, the roads leading to them being broad, even, and always kept in good repair. In the concluding note on Num 35:33 it has been stated that these cities were a type of our blessed Lord, and that the apostle refers to them as such, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 20:7
“And they appointed Kedesh, etc The Hebrew word Kedesh here used, signifies also to fit and consecrate. Accordingly, I interpret, that cities were selected according as common use required.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Joshua 20:7
“And they appointed - Concerning these cities note, 1. That they were all upon mountains, that they might be seen at a great distance, and so direct those who fled thither. That they were seated at convenient distance one from another, for the benefit of the several tribes; for Kedesh was in the north, Hebron in the south, and Shechem between them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 20:9, 2 voices
Joshua 20:9
“For all the children of Israel, and for the stranger - As these typified the great provision which God was making for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles, hence the stranger as well as the Israelite had the same right to the benefits of these cities of refuge. Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 20:9
“The stranger - Not only proselytes, but others also; because this was a matter of common right, that a distinction might be made between casual man-slayers, and wilful murderers.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
a.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.
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Joshua 20. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 9 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 2.13; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
Keep studying
On this page
Studies2
On this verse
On this book