Joshua 20: Deja Vu?

Joshua: Part 20 of 24
Cities of Refuge

1 Then the LORD said to Joshua:

Hey what?  For a second I thought Bob was back!!!  (reference to Moses in older posts)

2 “Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,

Oh cool, we’ll have this city for badminton and that one over there on the top of the hill for astronomy.

3 so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.

Ah crap, it’s this stuff again.  We’ve already been through this.  We get it.  Do we really need 300 ways of being told not to pick our noses before you move onto something meaningful?

4 When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state their case before the elders of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them.

So someone kills another person, runs to this designated city, pleads innocent and that is all it takes to get refuge and freedom?  Maybe if people didn’t know for certain they could get away with it they wouldn’t commit the crime in the first place.

5 If the avenger of blood comes in pursuit, the elders must not surrender the fugitive, because the fugitive killed their neighbor unintentionally and without malice aforethought.

No, he only states that.  You’ve said nothing about investigation.

6 They are to stay in that city until they have stood trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time. Then they may go back to their own home in the town from which they fled.”

You’ve still said nothing about a verdict.  And what has the death of a priest got to do with anything? We are going over old ground here.

7 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

8 East of the Jordan (on the other side from Jericho) they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of Manasseh.

9 Any of the Israelites or any foreigner residing among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly.

This is a stupid statement.  You are saying that someone who wasn’t innocent would not be able to flee successfully.  Morons.

<< Joshua 19      Index      Joshua 21 >>