Lexicon :: Strong's G2703 - katapheugō

“Look, this town is close enough for me to flee to. It is a small place. Please let me run to it ​— ​it’s only a small place, isn’t it? ​— ​so that I can survive.”

“If a person schemes and willfully[fn] acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from my altar to be put to death.

“I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into enemy hands.

“The assembly is to protect the one who kills someone from the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge he fled to, and he must live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive:

“If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

At sunset Joshua commanded that they be taken down from the trees and thrown into the cave where they had hidden. Then large stones were placed against the mouth of the cave, and the stones are still there today.

These are the cities appointed for all the Israelites and the aliens residing among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the assembly.

Rescue me from my enemies, LORD;

I come to you for protection.[fn]

What will you do on the day of punishment

when devastation comes from far away?

Who will you run to for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

The fortress disappears from Ephraim,

and a kingdom from Damascus.

The remnant of Aram will be

like the splendor of the Israelites.

This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.

“If anyone attacks you,

it is not from me;

whoever attacks you

will fall before you.

“so you will summon a nation you do not know,

and nations who do not know you will run to you.

For the LORD your God,

even the Holy One of Israel,

has glorified you.”

They will ask about Zion,

turning their faces to this road.

They will come and join themselves[fn] to the LORD

in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.

“Many nations will join themselves to the LORD on that day and become my[fn] people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you.