Joshuachapter 20
9 verses · Joshua, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · History
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.
Introduction
Joshua, by tradition, History, Joshua Overview.
This chapter carries out a command the LORD had given Moses, and it sets a law into the map of the land. It stands in the book that tradition credits to Joshua. Its first hearers lived in a world where the family of a slain man was bound to avenge the death. That custom made no room for the difference between a murder and an accident. The chapter names six towns spread across the country, three on each side of the Jordan. Listen for who stands at the city gate, and for the elders' duty to the one who comes. Listen also for the death that sets the fugitive free.
Context
- Who
- Clans now settled close enough together for a blood feud to run
- What
- The appointment of six cities of refuge, where a person who killed another without intent could flee from the avenger of blood.
- Where
- Kedesh in Galilee, Shechem in Ephraim and Hebron in Judah west of the Jordan, and Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan in Bashan east of it.
- When
- About 1400 BC on the traditional dating, after the division by lot and before the Levites received their towns.
- Why
- To protect a person who killed by accident from blood vengeance until the case was tried, so that innocent blood was not shed in the land.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the LORD as the speaker and to Joshua as the man carrying out an older order. Verse 2 says so plainly, that the appointment executes what was commanded through Moses at Numbers 35:9 to 34 and Deuteronomy 19:1 to 13.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
It stands after the allotment, so the six towns already have borders and owners before they are set apart. The three east of the river had been named by Moses at Deuteronomy 4:41 to 43 under these same names.
The six are Kedesh in Galilee, Shechem in the central hills and Hebron in the south, with Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan east of the Jordan. They are spaced so that no part of the country is more than a hard day's travel from one.
The occasion is the settling of the land itself. Clans now lived close enough together that a killing would be answered, and the provision goes up before the need arises.
A first hearer knew what the avenger of blood was. He is the goel, the kinsman whose duty it was to answer a death in the family, and the same word redeems land at Leviticus 25:25 and a man at Leviticus 25:48.
Such a hearer also knew that the gate was the courtroom. The elders sat there to hear cases, so the fugitive states his cause to a court and his safety turns on a hearing rather than on the ground he stands on.
The last thing a first hearer understood was the term of release. The man goes home at the death of the high priest and at no other point. The length of his exile is fixed by one man's life, and neither family can hurry it or delay it.
Significance
First hearers lived in a world where a killing had to be answered by the family at once. This provision kept that duty in place and interrupted it long enough for the facts to be heard.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
They also heard that the refuge stood open to the foreigner living among them on the same terms as the Israelite, which verse 9 states and Numbers 35:15 had said already.
And they heard that all six towns belonged to the Levites, so the men who took in a fugitive were from the tribe with no inheritance of its own.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
This is the chapter where the classical commentary is working on live law rather than on geography, and the corpus shows it. Only three notes of Rashi are kept for the chapter, and the longest of them sets out the procedure for the man who has killed without intent. He stands before the congregation for judgment first, and the outcome decides everything after: "If he is acquited from exile, he is discharged. If he is sentanced to exile, he is returned to the city of his refuge, and he must reside there until the death of the Kohein-godol" (Rashi on Joshua 20:6:1, the Metsudah Publications translation of 1997, CC-BY; the spellings are the translation's). The city is therefore a sentence rather than a hiding place, and its term runs to the death of one man in Jerusalem.
The other two notes anchor the chapter to the Torah. The three cities east of the Jordan were set apart in the days of Moses already, and Rashi names the verse of Deuteronomy that did it (Rashi on Joshua 20:8:1). The cities of the ninth verse he reads as places prepared and set aside in advance for this purpose (Rashi on Joshua 20:9:1), which is the point the law turns on, since a refuge that has to be found is no refuge.
The rest of the chapter's commentary is carried by Malbim, Metzudat David and Radak, and the corpus holds fourteen of their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand cited and unquoted: Malbim on Joshua 20:2:1, 20:3:1, 20:7:1 and 20:9:1; Metzudat David on Joshua 20:2:1, 20:3:1, 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1 and 20:9:1; and Radak on Joshua 20:2:1, 20:4:1, 20:6:1 and 20:9:1. For this chapter the linked commentators outnumber the quotable ones four to one, and the reason is the licence rather than the substance.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty one rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. They are concentrated in one tractate, and that concentration is itself the fact worth having. Makkot is the tractate of the Babylonian Talmud that treats the cities of refuge, and the corpus holds four of its passages here, at 9b:18, 10b:16, 10b:17 and 11a:1, with three passages of Jerusalem Talmud Makkot at 2:6:1, 2:6:2 and 2:6:11, and Ein Yaakov, Makkot 2:3 and 2:10 with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Makkot 2:1 beside them. Nine of the twenty one locators on this chapter come from that one subject.
The seventh verse, which names Kedesh in Galilee, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and Kiriath Arba, carries the heaviest single group: ten locators, including six of the Makkot passages above, with Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 6, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 35:14:1, Sifrei Bamidbar 160:2, Sifrei Devarim 37:8 and Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 30:4. The opening command carries Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 30:1 and 30:2 with Midrash Lekach Tov on Deuteronomy 4:41:1 and on Numbers 1:1:3, the fourth verse carries Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 930:1, and the eighth carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 27:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Joshua 20:6:1, 20:8:1 and 20:9:1, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997, CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Joshua 20:2:1, 20:3:1, 20:7:1 and 20:9:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Joshua 20:2:1 to 20:9:1, six refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Joshua 20:2:1, 20:4:1, 20:6:1 and 20:9:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/joshua/20.json, the 21 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter, nine of them in Makkot.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Cities of refuge for the man who kills unawares
Joshua 20:1-3
Verse 2 says this carries out what God instructed "through Moses", the law of Numbers 35:9-34 with Deuteronomy 19:1-13 behind it. The order follows the allotment of chapters 13 to 19, so the six towns have borders and owners before they are named as refuges. The avenger is the goel, the kinsman word that redeems land at Leviticus 25:25 and a man at Leviticus 25:48, here turned toward blood.
Joshua 20:1
“The Lord also spake unto Joshua,.... Out of the tabernacle, at the door of which he with the high priest and princes were; the Lord had spoken to him before concerning dividing the land among the tribes, Jos 13:1; and this being done he speaks to him again: saying: as follows.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joshua 20:1
“The institution of the cities of refuge, together with the rules prescribed for the guidance of those who sought an asylum within their walls, was an important provision, tending to secure the ends of justice as well as of mercy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The order waits until the land is divided. Wesley reads it that way: with the portions assigned, some towns can now be set aside. Clarke explains the need, since the nearest kinsman had the right to kill the slayer on the spot.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
The two words say the same thing twice, and Wesley takes the repetition as a bar against any deliberate murderer claiming shelter. Exodus 21:14 orders such a man taken even from the altar. Gill adds that the protection held whether the dead man was friend or foe, kin or stranger.
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
Joshua 20:4-6
The elders sat at the gate to hear cases, so the man pleads before a court and his protection turns on a hearing. Verse 4 has the elders receive him and verse 6 sends him to stand trial before the assembly, which Barnes reads as a provisional reception followed by the full trial. Release comes only at the high priest's death, so one man's life fixes the length of exile.
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
2 more voices on this verse
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
The test is the killer's state of mind before the act. Deuteronomy 19:5 gives the standard case, an axe blade flying off the handle and killing a neighbor. Matthew Henry notes that the avenger stood on the older law of Genesis 9:6, that whoever sheds man's blood will have his own blood shed.
Joshua 20:5
“And if the avenger of blood pursue after him,.... To the city of refuge, whither he is fled, and demand him: then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hands; to be slain by him, but shall protect him: because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime; See Gill on Num 35:22; see Gill on Num 35:23, and See Gill on Deu 19:6.”
until the death of the high priest: Calvin reads the exile as a lesson that human blood is precious to God, even where the killing carried no guilt. Ambrose raises the difficulty that the term depends on chance, since a high priest might die the day after the flight. Numbers 35:25 notes that he was anointed with holy oil.
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
2 more voices on this verse
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
Six cities named on both sides of Jordan
Joshua 20:7-9
Three cities stand west of the Jordan and three east, spaced north, middle and south, as Deuteronomy 19:3 asked when it divided the land into three regions. All six appear again in chapter 21 as Levite towns, and Moses had already set apart the eastern three, Bezer, Ramoth and Golan, at Deuteronomy 4:41-43. Verse 9 opens all six to foreigners on the Israelite's terms, as Numbers 35:15 had said.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Ramoth in Gilead later became a contested frontier town. Ahab went to battle there and died of his wound at 1 Kings 22:29-37, and Jehu was anointed king there at 2 Kings 9:1-6. Bezer on the plateau and Golan in Bashan complete the three on the eastern side.
Wesley extends the word foreigners beyond converts to any outsider, because the right concerned the plain difference between chance killing and murder. Clarke reads the open door as a figure of God's provision for Jew and Gentile alike and cites Romans 3:29. Protection lasts until the trial before the assembly.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
How this psalm is built
The form: A divine speech carried out in a short narrative, executing a standing command of the law of Moses, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The command quoted back | Verse 2 says the appointment carries out what the LORD spoke through Moses, so the chapter opens by naming itself as the discharge of Numbers 35:9 to 34 and Deuteronomy 19:1 to 13. The phrase cities of refuge is first used at Numbers 35:11 and the avenger of blood at Deuteronomy 19:12.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 20:1 to 3. | Joshua 20:2 |
| Three west and three east | Verse 7 names Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron west of the Jordan, spaced north, middle and south. Verse 8 names Bezer, Ramoth and Golan east of it, spaced the same way. Deuteronomy 19:3 asked for the roads prepared and the land divided in three, and the list answers that request on both sides of the river.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 20:7 to 9. | Joshua 20:7, Joshua 20:8 |
| The two hearings | Verse 4 has the elders of the city receive the man at the gate and give him a place. Verse 6 sends him to stand trial before the assembly. Albert Barnes reads the first as a provisional reception and the second as the full trial, which Numbers 35:24 and 25 locates with the community where the death occurred.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834 to 1885, on Joshua 20:4 to 6. | Joshua 20:4, Joshua 20:6 |
The structure
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Nine verses in two parts. Verses 1 to 6 are the LORD's words to Joshua, giving the reason, the procedure and the term of release. Verses 7 to 9 are the execution, naming the six towns and restating who the provision is for.
The procedure is given in the order a fugitive would meet it: the flight, the gate, the statement of his case, the place to live, the pursuit refused, the trial, and the release.
Across the canon
Numbers 35:9 to 34 and Deuteronomy 19:1 to 13 are the law this chapter executes, and Deuteronomy 4:41 to 43 is where the three eastern cities were already named.
Every one of the six is a Levite town in Joshua 21, at verses 13, 21, 27, 32, 36 and 38.
Shechem at verse 7 is where Joseph's bones are buried at Joshua 24:32 and where the covenant of chapter 24 is made. Hebron is Caleb's grant from Joshua 14:13. Kedesh in Galilee is where Deborah sends for Barak at Judges 4:6, and Ramoth in Gilead is where Ahab dies at 1 Kings 22:29 to 37.
1 Kings 1:50 and 2:28 show Adonijah and Joab taking hold of the horns of the altar instead, which is the other form sanctuary took in Israel, and in both cases the protection fails.
In the New Testament
Hebrews 6:18 speaks of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them, using the language of flight to a place of safety. The church has long read the cities of refuge alongside that verse, and the site's own page on the cities of refuge carries the fuller treatment.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834 to 1885, on Joshua 20:4 to 6 and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 20:1 to 3.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Ambrose of Milan, FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 2.13; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and The Berean Standard Bible, Joshua 20, with the verses cited in the note.