Joshua 20

World English Bible 85 include this book

1 The LORD spoke to Joshua, saying,

2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,

3 that the man slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.

4 He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them.

5 If the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver up the man slayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before.

6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the man slayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’”

7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

8 Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands trial before the congregation.

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9 places named in this chapter.

Where this was written

Canaan traditional Written in the land during or shortly after the settlement.

Jerusalem disputed Part of a history compiled in Jerusalem and revised in exile.

When this was written

Traditions differ. Each position is shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 1400 BC–1350 BC Joshua
Written by Joshua and completed by elders who outlived him.
Critical: 640 BC–550 BC Deuteronomistic historians
Read as part of a history running from Deuteronomy to Kings, compiled in the late monarchy and revised in exile.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (1400 BC–550 BC).

1600 BC–1178 BC Hittite empire Anatolia
An Anatolian power rivalling Egypt, ended in the Bronze Age collapse.
1600 BC–1100 BC Mycenaean Greece Greece
Fortified citadels dominated the Aegean; their Linear B tablets are the earliest Greek writing.
1600 BC–1046 BC Shang dynasty oracle bones China
The earliest substantial Chinese writing, inscribed on bone and shell for divination.
1550 BC–1069 BC Egyptian New Kingdom Egypt
Egypt at its imperial height, ruling from Nubia to the Levant under Thutmose III, Akhenaten and Rameses II.
1200 BC–1000 BC Iron working spreads in the Levant Levant
Iron gradually displaced bronze for tools and weapons across the eastern Mediterranean.
1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1200 BC–1150 BC Late Bronze Age collapse Mediterranean
Within roughly two generations most eastern Mediterranean states fell; cities were destroyed, trade networks broke and literacy contracted sharply.
1200 BC–600 BC Zoroaster teaches in Persia Persia
Founder of Zoroastrianism, whose dating is disputed by as much as six centuries. His teaching on a cosmic struggle between good and evil later touched Jewish and Christian thought.

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