1. When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,
2. you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.
3. You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities.
4. Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident.