Where were the six cities of refuge?

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Accepted Answer

The six cities of refuge were spread over the whole land, three on each side of the Jordan, so that no part of it was far from one. West of the river stood Kedesh in Galilee in the hills of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and Hebron in the hills of Judah; east of it, Golan in Bashan, Ramoth in Gilead and Bezer on the plateau of Reuben. Kedesh, the northernmost, lies about 180 km north of Hebron in a straight line, with Shechem between them, about 100 km from Kedesh and 78 km from Hebron; across the river Golan, Ramoth and Bezer make a matching line from north to south, and Bezer is about 63 km east of Jerusalem. The map opens on the chapter of Joshua that names all six. They were a refuge for a man who had killed without intent: “that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares”. The city sheltered him from the avenger of blood, the dead man's next of kin, “until he stand before the congregation in judgment”; if the killing proved unintended, he lived in the city “unto the death of the high priest” and then went home. At the gate he was to “declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city”. Deuteronomy tells Israel: “Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land… into three parts”. Moses set apart the three eastern cities and Joshua the three western; all six were among the forty-eight cities of the Levites, and Hebron was given to the sons of Aaron “to be a city of refuge for the slayer”. A wilful murderer had no refuge: “thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.” Shechem is Tell Balata at the edge of Nablus, Hebron the mound of Tel Rumeida, and Kedesh the large tell of Tel Kedesh west of the Hula valley; these are certain. Ramoth-gilead is usually placed at Tell er-Rumeith near the Jordanian border with Syria, though other sites are proposed; Golan is sought at Sahem el-Jolan east of the Sea of Galilee, and Bezer, which Mesha of Moab says he rebuilt, at Umm el-Amad on the plateau east of the Dead Sea, and both of these are guesses. When the law arose is debated: many critics since Wellhausen take the cities as a later answer to Josiah's closing of the local altars, where a killer had once fled, while others hold the asylum to be old and the lists to reflect real towns of the monarchy. The rabbis said the roads to the cities were kept wide and marked “Refuge” at every crossroads.