The Berean Table

Field	Detail
Pericope	Joshua 20:1–9
Theme	The LORD who demands justice for shed blood also provides an appointed refuge, foreshadowing Christ, our High Priest whose death brings the refugee home.

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Opening Prayer

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Closing Prayer

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Timeline Context

Place in the Book

Joshua 20 stands at the hinge between the allotment of the tribal inheritances (Joshua 13–19) and the assignment of the forty-eight Levitical cities (Joshua 21). The land has been divided by lot before the LORD at Shiloh, and the last portion has been given to Joshua himself (Joshua 19:49–51). Before the book turns to the priests and Levites, the LORD speaks once more to Joshua about the one piece of Mosaic legislation that required the land to be settled before it could be carried out: the six cities of refuge. The chapter is brief (nine verses), but it closes the land-distribution section with an institution of mercy, and the very next chapter shows that every city of refuge was also a Levitical city (Joshua 21:13, 21, 27, 32, 36, 38).

Historical Setting

The conquest campaigns are over (Joshua 11:23), though pockets of Canaanite resistance remain (Joshua 13:1–7; 15:63; 16:10; 17:12). On the traditional chronology derived from 1 Kings 6:1 and Judges 11:26, these events fall around 1400 BC, near the end of the Late Bronze Age; many scholars prefer a thirteenth-century date, and the text itself does not settle the matter. Canaan was a patchwork of city-states under a weakening Egyptian influence. Among the peoples of the ancient Near East, blood-vengeance by the next of kin was a deeply rooted custom, and sanctuary was sometimes sought at altars and temples. Israel had no standing police force; justice was administered by elders at the city gate and, in capital cases, by the congregation (Numbers 35:24; Deuteronomy 19:12; Ruth 4:1–2).

Surrounding Events

• The Mosaic groundwork. In the Book of the Covenant God first promised “a place to which he may flee” (Exodus 21:13); He detailed the six cities in the plains of Moab (Numbers 35:9–34); Moses designated the three eastern cities before his death (Deuteronomy 4:41–43) and charged Israel to add three in Canaan (Deuteronomy 19:1–13).
• The tabernacle at Shiloh. The tent of meeting has been set up at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1), and the high priest Eleazar presides over the allotment (Joshua 19:51). The phrase “the death of him who is high priest at the time” (v. 6) therefore has a living man in view.
• The Levitical cities. Joshua 21 gives the Levites forty-eight towns, six of which are the cities named here (Numbers 35:6–7).
• The Transjordan tribes. Joshua 22 sends Reuben, Gad and half-Manasseh home; two of their cities, Bezer and Ramoth, and a Manassite city, Golan, are listed in 20:8.

Redemptive-Historical Placement

The land is now Israel’s inheritance, and God insists that it remain a holy land where He dwells, not polluted by innocent blood (Numbers 35:33–34; Deuteronomy 19:10). Joshua 20 shows the covenant LORD building mercy into the structure of His people’s life: justice is not abandoned, but a way of escape is provided for the one who does not deserve to die. The institution looks back to God’s word to Noah that human life bears His image (Genesis 9:6) and forward to the One whom the Letter to the Hebrews presents as the refuge to which “we who have fled for refuge” (Hebrews 6:18) hold fast, the High Priest whose death secures the release of all who shelter in Him (Hebrews 9:12, 15).

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Historical-Grammatical Study

Genre

Joshua 20 is historical narrative reporting law put into practice. It follows a familiar command-and-fulfillment pattern: the LORD speaks and commands Joshua to speak to Israel (vv. 1–6), and the people carry out the word (vv. 7–9). The speech itself is a compact restatement of case law, drawing its wording from both Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19, so the chapter reads as the moment when the legislation of Moses becomes geography. The closing summary (v. 9) repeats the key phrases of v. 3 (without intent, the avenger of blood), forming a frame around the whole institution.

Key Hebrew Terms

• Refuge. The Hebrew miqlat (H4733) denotes an asylum, a place that takes a person in; Strong’s glosses it as a receptacle or refuge. In the Old Testament it is the technical term for these six cities (Numbers 35:11–15; Joshua 20:2–3; 21:13).
• Avenger. The Hebrew gaʼal (H1350) means to redeem or to act as next of kin; its participle names “the avenger of blood” (v. 3). The same kinsman who bought back a relative’s land (Leviticus 25:25) or married his widow (Ruth 3:9–13) also answered for his shed blood. The Pulpit Commentary explains the goel as “one who buys back at the appointed price what has fallen into other hands” (Pulpit Commentary, on 20:3). The duty was protective of the family, not merely vindictive; the law restrains it without abolishing it.
• Without intent. The Hebrew shegagah (H7684), error or inadvertence, is the word used for unintentional sins in the sacrificial law (Leviticus 4:2) and for without intent here (vv. 3, 9).
• Unknowingly. The Hebrew beli (H1097) joined to the Hebrew daʻat (H1847) means literally without knowledge (vv. 3, 5), the phrase Deuteronomy uses for the same case (Deuteronomy 4:42; 19:4).
• Manslayer. The Hebrew ratsach (H7523) is the verb of the sixth commandment (Exodus 20:13); its participle here names “the manslayer” (v. 3), as again in verses 5 and 6. Scripture uses one verb for the deed and lets the heart behind the deed decide the case.
• Give up. The Hebrew sagar (H5462), to shut up or surrender, stands behind “they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand” (v. 5).
• Set apart. The Hebrew qadash (H6942), to sanctify or consecrate, is the verb in v. 7. The Pulpit Commentary notes that “the LXX. and Vulgate, as well as our version, have neglected to render” (Pulpit Commentary, on 20:7) this word, which literally says the cities were sanctified.
• Designated. The Hebrew muʻadah (H4152), an appointed place, gives the chapter its closing description (v. 9). Keil insists it signifies “neither urbes congregationis (Kimchi) nor urbes asyli (Gesenius), but cities of appointment” (Keil and Delitzsch, on 20:8), that is, cities that received the appointment God had already given.
• Congregation and sojourner. The Hebrew ʻedah (H5712) is the assembled congregation that judges the case (vv. 6, 9); the Hebrew ger (H1616) is the resident foreigner who shares the protection (v. 9).

Grammar and Syntax

• Two until clauses in v. 6 govern the refugee’s stay: he remains “until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time” (v. 6). The first limits the protective custody before trial; the second sets the term of residence after acquittal. Numbers 35:24–25 makes the order explicit.
• Two verbs of designation. The western cities are sanctified (v. 7); the eastern cities are appointed or given (v. 8), because Moses had already separated them (Deuteronomy 4:41–43).
• The blended vocabulary of Numbers (without intent, congregation) and Deuteronomy (unknowingly, did not hate him in the past, elders) shows the chapter consciously uniting the two law codes as one Mosaic word: “of which I spoke to you through Moses” (v. 2).
• A textual note. The Greek translation of Joshua (the Septuagint) is shorter than the Hebrew in this chapter, lacking much of the material in vv. 4–6. The English versions follow the fuller Hebrew text, and nothing in the chapter’s teaching depends on the difference.

Ancient Near Eastern Background

Blood-revenge by the nearest kinsman was an ancient and widespread practice. Where it ran unchecked it bred feuds that could consume families for generations. The Pulpit Commentary observes, “It is no small corroboration of the Divine origin of the Mosaic law that we find here a provision for mitigating the evils of this rude code” (Pulpit Commentary, on 20:3). Neighboring peoples knew the right of sanctuary at temples and altars, but Israel’s institution differed at every point that mattered:

• Not a shrine but a town. Refuge was found in ordinary inhabited cities spread across the land, not only at the altar.
• Not for the murderer. A willful killer was to be taken even “from my altar, that he may die” (Exodus 21:14), as Joab later learned (1 Kings 2:28–34).
• Not without trial. Protection was provisional until the congregation judged the case (Numbers 35:24).
• Not for sale. No ransom could buy a murderer’s life or an early release (Numbers 35:31–32).

Later Jewish Tradition

The rabbinic tradition preserved in the Mishnah (tractate Makkot, cited by Gill on v. 8) elaborated the practice. Alfred Edersheim summarizes it: “According to the Talmud they were to be forty-eight feet wide, and provided with bridges, and with sign-posts where roads diverged” (Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, ch. 4). The tradition goes beyond Scripture, which commands only that the way be prepared and the land divided so that the manslayer could reach a city (Deuteronomy 19:3), but it shows how seriously Israel’s teachers took the principle that the road to refuge must be open.

Covenantal Themes

• The image of God. Human life is sacred because “God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).
• The holiness of the land. God says of Canaan, “in the midst of which I dwell” (Numbers 35:34); shed blood defiles the place of His presence.
• The kinsman-redeemer. The goel who avenges is the same figure who redeems, preparing for the LORD’s self-description as Israel’s Redeemer (Isaiah 41:14).
• Priesthood and mediation. The cities belong to the Levites, and release comes with the high priest’s death.
• The sojourner included. The protection extends to “the stranger sojourning among them” (v. 9), a covenant mercy that already reaches beyond Israel.

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Expanded Outline

Section 1 — The LORD Commands the Cities of Refuge (Joshua 20:1–2)

Key Insight

The chapter opens with divine initiative: “Then the LORD said to Joshua” (v. 1). The allotment is finished, every tribe has its inheritance, and before Israel can settle into ownership the LORD speaks again. The refuge is not Israel’s invention, and it is not a concession wrung from a reluctant God by human need; it is His own provision, announced long before any manslayer ran for his life (Exodus 21:13; Numbers 35:9–11).

The command is to “Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses” (v. 2). Joshua is not a new lawgiver. He is the faithful successor who carries out the word already given through Moses, literally by the hand of Moses. The written law governs the new generation in the new land exactly as it governed the old (Joshua 1:7–8). God’s word does not expire when His servant dies; it waits for obedience.

Why did the LORD need to repeat Himself? Calvin reads the verse pointedly: “In the fact of its not having occurred to their own minds, to designate the cities of refuge, till they were again reminded of it, their sluggishness appears to be indirectly censured” (Calvin, Commentary on Joshua, on 20:1). The Reformer sees a people content to enjoy their allotments while forgetting the one institution that protected the helpless. His English editor, Beveridge, calls this reading somewhat singular and notes that other expositors hold that the cities could not be named until the Levites received their towns; Matthew Henry similarly thinks the designation probably waited for Joshua 21. Both readings hold together at the point that matters: the LORD’s reminder comes at exactly the moment the land is divided, so that mercy is written into Israel’s map from the beginning.

Henry draws out the grace of that timing: “As soon as ever God had given them cities of rest, he bade them appoint cities of refuge, to which none of them knew but they might be glad to escape” (Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Joshua 20:1–6). Every Israelite who now owned a field could, in a moment of accident, become a fugitive. Rest and refuge belong together; the God who gives the inheritance also guards the one who might lose it.

Calvin adds the public reason: “how important it was that there should be places of refuge for the innocent, in order that the land might not be polluted with blood” (Calvin, Commentary on Joshua, on 20:1). Without the cities, grief would breed vengeance and vengeance would breed more bloodshed, defiling the land where the LORD dwelt (Numbers 35:33–34; Deuteronomy 19:10).

How this points to Christ. The God who spoke “through Moses” (v. 2) has now spoken “by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2). The refuge commanded here was planned before it was needed, just as Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20) as the Lamb whose blood would shelter sinners. The six cities were a gracious lesson in a larger truth that the psalmist sang: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). That refuge now has a name and a face. Hebrews describes believers as those “who have fled for refuge” (Hebrews 6:18) to the hope set before them in Jesus, the forerunner who has entered behind the curtain on our behalf.

Application

God’s provision of refuge precedes our need of it. Before any of us awoke to guilt, before any accusation found us, the Father had appointed His Son as the refuge for sinners (Ephesians 1:4–7). This should shape how we think about grace: it is not God’s reaction to our crisis but His settled purpose, and we may therefore come to Christ with confidence rather than suspicion (Hebrews 4:16).

The chapter also exposes a common spiritual habit: enjoying God’s gifts while postponing His commands. Israel had fields and houses; the refuge cities waited. Many believers are prompt to receive blessings and slow to obey instructions they already know. The psalmist’s resolve is the right one: he hastens and does not delay to keep God’s commandments (Psalm 119:60).

Practical examples include:

• Personal obedience. A reconciliation we know we should seek, a restitution we have postponed, or a public profession of faith we keep deferring.
• Church life. Congregations need settled, biblical procedures for protecting the vulnerable and hearing disputes fairly before a crisis arrives (1 Corinthians 6:1–5; 14:40).
• Mercy structures. Just as Israel built mercy into its map, a church should build care for the afflicted into its ordinary life through its deacons and members (Acts 6:1–6; Galatians 6:10).

God’s patience in repeating Himself is itself grace (2 Peter 3:9). But patience is meant to lead to prompt obedience, not continued delay (James 1:22).

A warning against misapplication: the LORD’s willingness to remind Israel is not permission to wait for a second reminder before we obey. Nor should Calvin’s rebuke of Israel’s delay be turned into a harsh spirit that assumes every delay among God’s people is rebellion; sometimes, as other expositors noted here, a matter must wait for its proper time. The goal is responsive obedience, not anxious scrupulosity.

Section 2 — Refuge for the One Who Kills Without Intent (Joshua 20:3)

Key Insight

Verse 3 defines who may use the cities: “the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there” (v. 3). Two phrases describe the same case from two angles. Without intent (the Hebrew shegagah) looks at the act as an error; unknowingly (literally without knowledge) looks at the mind of the one who acted. Matthew Poole explains the doubling: it is “the same thing twice repeated, to cut off all the claims and expectations that wilful murderers might have of protection here” (Poole, on 20:3). The redundancy is deliberate legal precision. The refuge is wide open to the right person and firmly shut to the wrong one.

The Mosaic examples make the case concrete. A man swings an axe to cut wood and the head flies off and strikes his neighbor (Deuteronomy 19:5); a stone is thrown without seeing the victim (Numbers 35:22–23). Death has occurred, blood has been shed, and yet there was no hatred, no lying in wait, no plan. The law therefore measures not only the hand but the heart. Matthew Henry puts it memorably: the cities protected the one “whose hand only was guilty but not his heart” (Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Joshua 20:1–6).

Scripture does not treat such an event as mere chance. The earliest statement of the law says that if the killer “did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee” (Exodus 21:13). Calvin presses the point: “Moses declares that accidental homicide, as it is commonly called, does not happen by chance or accident, but according to the will of God” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Exodus 21:12). The same sovereign God who governs the fall of a sparrow (Matthew 10:29) governs the flight of an axe head. Yet His providence does not make the manslayer a murderer, and it does not make God the author of sin. God governs the event; the law judges the man by his intent.

The refugee flees “from the avenger of blood” (v. 3), the goel, the next of kin whose family duty was to answer for the life that had been taken (Numbers 35:19). The avenger is not simply a villain. He represents the real claim of justice that shed blood makes (Genesis 4:10; 9:6). The refuge does not deny that claim; it channels it into a lawful hearing so that innocent blood is not added to innocent blood (Deuteronomy 19:10).

The distinction of intent runs through the whole Bible. Jesus goes beneath the act to the heart when He teaches that anger and contempt make a person “liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:22), and John writes that “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Joshua 20 shows the other side of the same truth: where there was no hatred, there was no murder.

How this points to Christ. The sacrificial law made provision for anyone who “sins unintentionally” (Leviticus 4:2), and Hebrews notes that the high priest offered blood “for the unintentional sins of the people” (Hebrews 9:7). On the cross, Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), and Peter later told the crowd, “I know that you acted in ignorance” (Acts 3:17), before calling them to repent and flee to the Christ they had killed (Acts 3:19). The One whose blood was shed became the refuge of those who shed it.

Application

This verse teaches us to see as God sees: He weighs motives as well as outcomes (Proverbs 16:2; 1 Corinthians 4:5). That should shape how we judge others and how we judge ourselves.

When someone harms us by accident, love calls us to distinguish carelessness from malice. A driver whose momentary inattention caused a death, a doctor whose honest error cost a life, a child who broke something precious while playing: each may carry real consequences, but none should be treated as a murderer or an enemy. The law of the refuge calls God’s people to restrain the instinct for vengeance and to leave room for the truth to be heard (Romans 12:19).

When we are the ones who have caused harm without intending it, the same law calls for humility and ownership. The manslayer did not stay home and insist on his innocence; he fled, stood at the gate, and explained his case. The unintentional sins of Leviticus 4 still required a sacrifice. Our unintended wrongs still call for confession, apology, and restitution where possible (Matthew 5:23–24; Luke 19:8).

Practical examples:

• Offer grace to the person whose honest mistake has cost you, and resist retelling the event as if it were malice (Colossians 3:13).
• Build reasonable safeguards against foreseeable accidents in home, work and church, as the law required a parapet on a roof (Deuteronomy 22:8).
• When you have hurt someone unknowingly, go to them first; do not wait for them to come to you.

A warning against misapplication: the category of without intent must not be stretched to cover recklessness or willful negligence. The law held the owner of an ox known to gore responsible for the death it caused (Exodus 21:29), and a heart that does not care enough to take precautions is not innocent. Nor should anyone use I didn’t mean it as a way to avoid confession, restitution, or the consequences God’s order still attaches to our actions.

Section 3 — Heard at the Gate and Not Handed Over (Joshua 20:4–5)

Key Insight

Verse 4 describes the refugee’s arrival: “He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city” (v. 4). The gate was the courthouse of an ancient town, where elders sat to hear disputes and witness transactions (Deuteronomy 21:19; Ruth 4:1–2; 2 Samuel 15:2). The manslayer does not climb the wall or slip in by night. John Gill notes that he stood at the gate “for he might not rush in without leave” (Gill, on 20:4).

The elders’ response is swift and generous: “Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them” (v. 4). Albert Barnes explains the procedure: “the elders of the city were to hold an inquiry, and receive him provisionally into the city” (Barnes, on 20:4). This first hearing was not the final verdict, which belonged to the congregation (v. 6; Numbers 35:24). But it meant that a fugitive with a plausible case did not wait outside the gate while the avenger closed in.

Verse 5 then states the protection plainly: “And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand” (v. 5). The Hebrew sagar, to shut up or surrender, pictures the elders closing a man in on the avenger’s side of the gate. That they must not do. The reason is repeated from v. 3: “because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past” (v. 5). The idiom behind in the past is literally yesterday and the day before; the question is whether there was a history of enmity. Notice that the victim is still called his neighbor. The law never forgets that a real loss has occurred.

The avenger’s pursuit raises a hard question. Did God approve of private vengeance? Calvin thinks not: “it is a very bad precedent to give the power of the sword to private individuals, and this too in their own cause” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 35:19). In his reading the Mosaic law restrains a deeply rooted custom it did not create, fencing it with a sanctuary and a trial so that grief could not become murder. The refuge cities are God’s merciful limit on human wrath.

The elders’ duty cut both ways. If the refugee proved to be a willful murderer, the elders of his own city were to “hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die” (Deuteronomy 19:12). The same gate that sheltered the innocent refused to shelter the guilty (Exodus 21:14). Refuge was mercy, but it was never injustice.

How this points to Christ. The sinner who comes to Christ also comes openly, confessing rather than concealing (1 John 1:9; Psalm 32:5), and Christ receives him at once: “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). Once received, he will not be surrendered to any accuser; Christ says of His sheep, “no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). The deepest wonder is the reason. The manslayer was not given up because he was innocent of murder. Believers are not given up because Another was. God “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32); Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses” (Romans 4:25) so that those who flee to Him will never be handed over to condemnation (Romans 8:1).

Application

The elders at the gate model the posture God’s people should take toward anyone who comes to them in trouble. They listened before they judged. Scripture warns that “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17), and calls every believer to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). In an age of instant outrage and public pile-ons, the refuge law calls Christians to refuse mob justice and to insist that the truth be heard.

The elders also showed hospitality. They gave the fugitive “a place” (v. 4) and let him live among them. Churches are called to be communities where people in crisis find shelter, a meal, a listening ear and godly counsel (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2).

For the one in trouble, the passage gives direction as well. The refugee went to the appointed place and told the truth. Believers who have done wrong, or who stand accused, should come into the light rather than hide (John 3:20–21; Proverbs 28:13).

Practical examples:

• When a conflict is reported to you, hear the other party before forming a verdict.
• Refuse to share accusations about others online or in conversation before the facts are established (Exodus 23:1).
• Welcome newcomers in distress with practical care, not suspicion.

A crucial warning against misapplication: the city of refuge sheltered only those whose innocence of malice could be established, and it handed the guilty over to justice (Deuteronomy 19:11–12). A church must never become a sanctuary that shields abusers, hides crimes, or discourages victims from going to the civil authorities God has appointed to bear the sword (Romans 13:4). Hospitality to the accused never overrides protection of the vulnerable or cooperation with lawful justice.

Section 4 — Until the Death of the High Priest (Joshua 20:6)

Key Insight

Verse 6 sets the terms of the refugee’s stay: “And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled” (v. 6). The two until clauses describe two stages. Keil explains that “the manslayer was to live in the town till the congregation had pronounced judgment upon the matter, and either given him up to the avenger of blood as a wilful murderer, or taken him back to the city of refuge as an unintentional manslayer” (Keil and Delitzsch, on 20:6). Once acquitted, he lived in the city, protected but not yet home, until the high priest died.

This residence was a real deprivation. The refugee was cut off from “the land of his possession” (Numbers 35:28), his family inheritance. If he left the city’s bounds, the avenger could lawfully kill him (Numbers 35:26–27). No payment could shorten the term: “you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest” (Numbers 35:32).

Why should the high priest’s death be the turning point? Numbers stresses that he is the priest “who was anointed with the holy oil” (Numbers 35:25). Interpreters have answered in three main ways:

• A renewal of grace. Calvin writes, “when a new priest succeeded to reconcile the people to God, this renewal of grace was to propitiate all offenses” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 35:28). A new priesthood meant a new beginning.
• An expiatory death. Keil, commenting on Numbers 35, argues that the anointed high priest’s death was regarded as expiating the blood that had been shed, and so became a type of the death of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God (Hebrews 9:14–15).
• A national turning point. The Pulpit Commentary rejects the typological reading outright: “The high priest’s death was in no sense typical of the death of Christ” (Pulpit Commentary, on 20:6). It treats his death as a national event that swallowed up private grievances.

The text itself does not say that the high priest’s death atones. But it does make the manslayer’s freedom depend on the death of the anointed mediator, not on his own merit, suffering or payment. That pattern is exactly what the New Testament finds fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews speaks of Jesus as the high priest who entered the holy places “by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12), and declares that “a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). Held with the restraint the text requires, the typology is sound: the refugee went home because the high priest died.

How this points to Christ. Spurgeon draws the line plainly: “We dread no condemnation now, for our High Priest has died” (Spurgeon, Sermon No. 950, Means for Restoring the Banished). The differences deepen the comparison. Israel’s high priest died unwillingly and was replaced; Christ laid down His life willingly (John 10:18) and, having risen, “holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever” (Hebrews 7:24). The manslayer’s release was one man’s return to one field; the believer’s release opens the way to “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter 1:4).

Application

The refugee was safe inside the city, but he was not yet home. Many Christians live as though that were still their condition: safe from final judgment, perhaps, but confined by guilt, afraid to step beyond the walls, never quite free. The gospel announces something more. Our High Priest has died, and His death has not only sheltered us but released us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We may walk as children who have come home (Galatians 4:4–7). The freedom the Son gives is real freedom, not a longer leash (John 8:36).

At the same time, the refugee’s long residence reminds us that forgiven sin can still leave earthly consequences. David was forgiven, yet the sword did not depart from his house (2 Samuel 12:10–13). Believers who carry the lasting results of past sins, such as broken relationships, legal penalties or damaged health, need not conclude that God’s forgiveness is incomplete.

Practical examples:

• Replace the habit of rehearsing forgiven sins with thanksgiving for the finished work of Christ (Hebrews 10:17–18).
• Accept lawful consequences of past wrongdoing without bitterness, as part of God’s fatherly discipline (Hebrews 12:10–11).
• Look forward to the full homecoming promised at Christ’s return (Romans 8:23).

A warning against misapplication: the refugee did not earn his release by serving his time; it came by another’s death. The passage must not be turned into a picture of purgatory or of penance by which we complete what Christ’s death began. Nor should anyone conclude that because consequences remain, forgiveness has not been granted.

Section 5 — Six Cities Set Apart on Both Sides of the Jordan (Joshua 20:7–8)

Key Insight

Now the command becomes geography: “So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah” (v. 7). West of the Jordan the three cities stand in the north, the center and the south, fulfilling the instruction to divide the land into three parts “so that any manslayer can flee to them” (Deuteronomy 19:3). Each is a place with a history. Kedesh lay in Naphtali’s allotment (Joshua 19:37); Shechem was where the LORD first appeared to Abram in the land and where Abram built an altar (Genesis 12:6–7); Hebron was Abraham’s burial place (Genesis 25:9–10) and Caleb’s hard-won inheritance (Joshua 14:13–14).

The verb is striking. The ESV’s set apart renders the Hebrew qadash, to sanctify. These were not merely designated; they were consecrated. Matthew Henry takes the word straight to Christ: “Christ, our refuge, was sanctified by his Father; nay, for our sakes he sanctified himself” (Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Joshua 20:7–9). Jesus prayed, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19). The refuge God provides is a holy refuge.

Matthew Poole observes that the cities shared a common setting: “That they were all upon mountains, that they might be seen at a great distance, and so direct those who fled thither” (Poole, on 20:7). The phrase hill country recurs three times in v. 7. A fugitive running for his life needed to see where he was going.

East of the Jordan, “they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh” (v. 8). Moses had already separated these cities (Deuteronomy 4:41–43); Israel now confirms them. The Jordan, soon to become a line of suspicion between the tribes (Joshua 22:24–25), does not divide the provision of mercy. Refuge is available on both sides of the river.

Every one of the six was also a Levitical city (Joshua 21:13, 21, 27, 32, 36, 38). Calvin explains why: “the Lord was pleased that asylums should be found only in the Levitical cities, that their innocence might be defended with greater fidelity and authority” (Calvin, Commentary on Joshua, on 20:7). The refugee lived among those who taught God’s law and served at His altar (Deuteronomy 33:10). Refuge and the Word belonged together.

Older commentators also found meaning in the names: Kedesh is related to holiness, Shechem means shoulder, Hebron is associated with joining or fellowship. Henry offers these readings modestly: “I delight not in quibbling upon names, yet am willing to take notice of these” (Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Joshua 20:7–9). His restraint is wise. The names can illustrate truths taught elsewhere, as when Shechem recalls the Messiah of whom Isaiah says, “the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6), but they do not establish them.

How this points to Christ. The six cities were accessible, visible, holy and priestly. Christ is all four: near to all who call on Him (Romans 10:8–13), lifted up to be seen (John 12:32), “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26), and the great High Priest in whom the refuge and the priesthood meet in one Person (Hebrews 4:14–16).

Application

God placed the cities so that no Israelite was far from refuge. The gospel carries the same intention: the word of faith is near (Romans 10:8), and God has sent His people to make it known. This should shape how we think about evangelism and church life. The question is not only whether the gospel is true, but whether the road to Christ is clear.

The cities were also set on hills. Jesus says of His disciples, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). A church that hides its light, or clutters the road with stumbling blocks of its own making, fails the fugitive. Paul wrote, “We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry” (2 Corinthians 6:3).

Finally, the cities were Levitical: places where the law was taught and God was worshiped. Refuge is not only escape from danger but entrance into a community shaped by God’s Word (Malachi 2:7; Acts 2:42).

Practical examples:

• Examine whether cultural preferences, unkindness or jargon make your church harder to enter than the gospel requires.
• Make the way to Christ plain when you speak to seekers; avoid adding conditions God has not given (Acts 15:19).
• Consider what you might yield, as Caleb yielded Hebron itself to the Levites while keeping its fields (Joshua 21:11–12), so that others can find refuge.

A warning against misapplication: the Christ-centered meaning of the cities rests on the New Testament’s use of refuge imagery (Hebrews 6:18), not on the etymology of their names. Building doctrine or devotional certainty on name meanings, some of which are disputed, trades the clear teaching of Scripture for private ingenuity.

Section 6 — Refuge for Israel and the Sojourner (Joshua 20:9)

Key Insight

The chapter closes with a summary that gathers up the whole institution: “These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation” (v. 9). The key phrases of v. 3 return (without intent, the avenger of blood), so the chapter ends where it began, with God’s purpose restated and fulfilled.

The cities are designated, appointed places. Their protection did not depend on a local council’s goodwill or a tribe’s sympathies. John Gill observes that they were “For the common use of them all, and not for that tribe only in which they stood” (Gill, on 20:9). A Danite could run to Hebron and a Judahite to Kedesh. The mercy of God was not parceled out along tribal lines.

Most remarkable is the inclusion of “the stranger sojourning among them” (v. 9). The resident foreigner, the ger, had no tribal inheritance and no kinsman in Israel to plead his cause, yet he received the same protection as the native-born (Numbers 35:15). Matthew Poole explains the principle: “because this was a matter of common right, that a distinction might be made between casual man-slayers and wilful murderers” (Poole, on 20:9). Israel’s law had already insisted, “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you” (Exodus 12:49), and the LORD Himself “loves the sojourner” (Deuteronomy 10:18). In Joshua 20 that love takes the form of a gate that opens to the foreigner as readily as to the Israelite.

The last clause, “till he stood before the congregation” (v. 9), reminds us that refuge served justice rather than evading it. The city held the fugitive safe until the truth could be heard. Mercy made room for judgment to be just.

How this points to Christ. Gill draws the line from the sojourner to the gospel: “Christ is a refuge for Jews and Gentiles, for all sinners that flee to him” (Gill, on 20:9). Paul reminds Gentile believers that they were once “strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12), but “now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

Yet here the type is surpassed as well as fulfilled. The cities sheltered only the one who killed without intent; the willful murderer was handed over. Spurgeon, preaching on the cities of refuge, saw the point clearly: “He is not a refuge provided for men who are innocent, but for men who are guilty” (Spurgeon, Sermon No. 2621, The Sinner’s Refuge). The refuge that Joshua 20 anticipates receives even those whose sin was deliberate. Paul, a willful persecutor, testifies that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15). The crowd that called for Jesus’ death heard Peter say, “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off” (Acts 2:39). Christ’s refuge is wider than the law’s, because it rests not on the refugee’s innocence but on the Refuge’s own blood.

Application

Joshua 20:9 asks two questions of every reader: Have you fled to the refuge? And do you welcome others into it?

The first is personal. The cities saved only those who ran to them. Living near Kedesh did not protect a man who stayed in his field. Likewise, growing up in a Christian home, attending church or admiring Jesus does not shelter anyone from judgment. Only those who flee to Christ by faith are safe (John 3:18, 36). A manslayer who lingered at the scene, hoping the avenger would be slow, was gambling with his life; so is anyone who postpones repentance. And the time to flee is now: “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The second is corporate. If God opened the refuge to the stranger, His people must do the same. Churches should welcome immigrants, refugees, the socially marginal and the morally notorious with the same gospel and the same care (James 2:1–4; Romans 15:7).

Practical examples:

• Invite a friend who assumes church is not for people like me.
• Learn the names and needs of foreign-born neighbors or church members, and offer practical help.
• Pray specifically for those you have quietly concluded are too far gone.

A warning against misapplication: the openness of the refuge must not be twisted into universalism. The gate was open to all, but only those who entered were safe. Nor should the truth that Christ receives the guilty be used to make light of sin; He receives sinners in order to cleanse and change them (Titus 2:11–14).

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Cross References

Comparative Gospel Study

Not Applicable as Direct Comparison — Joshua is Old Testament historical narrative recording the Mosaic law put into practice in the land, not Gospel narrative. However, Joshua 20:1–9 anticipates key Gospel themes:

• The Refuge who calls the pursued. The cities existed for people running for their lives with an avenger close behind. Jesus speaks to the same condition when He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). His lament over Jerusalem uses refuge imagery directly: He longed to gather her children “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” (Matthew 23:37). The Gospels present Christ as the living refuge the cities foreshadowed.

• Forgiveness for those who act in ignorance. The refuge law turns on the difference between killing without intent and murder. At the cross Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). The Gospel writers show the One whose blood was shed interceding for those who shed it, opening a refuge for His own killers that goes beyond anything the Mosaic cities could offer.

• The gate that receives. The refugee stood at the gate and was taken in (v. 4). Jesus says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). The elders gave the fugitive a place; Jesus promises that the one who comes to Him will never be cast out (John 6:37), and He goes ahead to prepare a place for His people (John 14:2–3).

• A high priest’s death for the people. Release from the city came at the death of the high priest (v. 6). In John’s Gospel it is the high priest Caiaphas who unknowingly prophesies “that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50). John explains that Jesus would die not for the nation only but to gather God’s scattered children into one (John 11:51–52).

• Refuge that reaches the stranger. The cities included “the stranger sojourning among them” (v. 9). Shechem, one of the refuge cities, lay beside Sychar, where Jesus offered living water to a Samaritan woman (John 4:5–26). Her townspeople confessed Him as “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42), a foretaste of the refuge opened to every nation.

Old Testament Connections

Pentateuch

• Cain and the cry of blood. “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Cain feared that anyone who found him would kill him, and God set a mark to restrain vengeance (Genesis 4:14–15), an early sign that God limits the cycle of blood.
• The image of God. God requires a reckoning for human blood because “God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).
• The first promise of refuge. “God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee” (Exodus 21:13), while the willful murderer is taken even from the altar (Exodus 21:14).
• The full law. Numbers 35:9–34 sets out the six cities, the trial before the congregation, the high priest’s death, and the refusal of ransom. Deuteronomy 4:41–43 records Moses setting apart the eastern cities, and Deuteronomy 19:1–13 requires prepared roads and the handing over of murderers.
• The kinsman-redeemer. The goel who avenges blood is the same kinsman who redeems land and persons (Leviticus 25:25, 47–49).
• Levi’s inheritance. The refuge cities belong to Levi, whose portion is the LORD Himself (Numbers 18:20; 35:6).

Historical Books

• The Levitical cities. Joshua 21:13–38 and 1 Chronicles 6:57, 67 confirm that each refuge city was given to the Levites; Hebron is called “the city of refuge for the manslayer” (Joshua 21:13).
• Abner at Hebron. Joab killed Abner in the gateway of Hebron, itself a city of refuge, avenging “the blood of Asahel his brother” (2 Samuel 3:27), a grim example of private vengeance overriding the law’s protections.
• The woman of Tekoa. Her parable of a son threatened by the avenger of blood leads to the confession that God “devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast” (2 Samuel 14:14).
• The altar is no refuge for murderers. Adonijah and Joab grasp the horns of the altar (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28), but Joab, guilty of innocent blood, is executed there (1 Kings 2:29–34), exactly as Exodus 21:14 required.

Wisdom Literature

• The LORD as refuge. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).
• Refuge when no refuge remains. David, hunted and alone, cries, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:5).
• Bloodguilt confessed. David’s prayer, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God” (Psalm 51:14), shows a guilty man fleeing to God Himself when no city could shelter him.

Major Prophets

• A shelter from the storm. Isaiah foresees a righteous king whose rule will be “like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm” (Isaiah 32:2).
• The government on His shoulder. The Messiah will bear rule: “the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6).
• The LORD as sanctuary in exile. To exiles far from home the LORD says, “yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone” (Ezekiel 11:16). God Himself becomes the refuge of those cut off from their inheritance.

Minor Prophets

• A stronghold that knows its own. “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him” (Nahum 1:7).
• Prisoners of hope. “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double” (Zechariah 9:12). Like the refugee awaiting release, God’s people wait in hope for full restoration.

New Testament Fulfillment

Gospels and Acts

• The prayer from the cross. Jesus intercedes for those who killed Him (Luke 23:34).
• Ignorance and repentance. Peter tells the crowd, “I know that you acted in ignorance” (Acts 3:17), then calls them to “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).
• Refuge for the far off. At Pentecost the promise is extended “for all who are far off” (Acts 2:39), and the refuge opens to the nations.

Paul’s Epistles

• No condemnation. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1); no accuser can succeed, because “Christ Jesus is the one who died” (Romans 8:34).
• Found in Him. Paul’s desire is to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law” (Philippians 3:9). Matthew Henry connects this directly to the refuge cities.
• Hidden with Christ. “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
• Strangers brought near. Gentiles once “strangers to the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:12) are now “fellow citizens with the saints” (Ephesians 2:19).
• Vengeance and the magistrate. Private vengeance is forbidden (Romans 12:19), and the civil ruler bears the sword as “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).

General Epistles and Revelation

• Fled for refuge. Hebrews describes believers as “we who have fled for refuge” (Hebrews 6:18), using the Greek katapheugō, to flee for safety. Spurgeon judged that “the figure here used is undoubtedly that of the City of Refuge to which the man-slayer fled when he was in danger from the avenger of blood” (Spurgeon, Sermon No. 1352, Strong Consolation for the Lord’s Refugees). The hope they grasp is an anchor that enters behind the curtain, “where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:20).
• The priest who never dies. Unlike Israel’s high priests, Christ “holds his priesthood permanently” (Hebrews 7:24) and “always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25).
• An advocate for sinners. “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
• The city whose gates stay open. In the new Jerusalem “its gates will never be shut by day” (Revelation 21:25), and “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4). The accuser has been “thrown down” (Revelation 12:10).

Redemptive-Historical Context

Creation. God made humanity in His own image and gave life as His gift (Genesis 1:26–27; 2:7). Human blood is precious because it bears the stamp of the Creator, and the earth itself was made to be the dwelling place of God with His people. The cities of refuge presuppose this: bloodshed, even unintended, is a grievous thing because life belongs to God (Genesis 9:6).

Fall. Sin brought death into the world, and the first death recorded in Scripture is a murder (Genesis 4:8). From Abel’s blood crying from the ground (Genesis 4:10) to Lamech’s boast of seventy-sevenfold vengeance (Genesis 4:23–24), the fallen world is marked by the spiral of violence and revenge. Even accidents that take life belong to a creation subjected to futility (Romans 8:20). The avenger of blood and the fleeing manslayer are figures of a broken world in which justice and grief can themselves become destructive.

Redemption foreshadowed. Into this world God speaks law that restrains evil and mercy that shelters the vulnerable. Joshua 20 is a small but significant step in that story. Israel has received the land promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:18–21), and God builds into its geography a network of mercy: six holy, priestly cities, accessible from every region, open to native and stranger, in which the one who does not deserve to die may live. The institution teaches Israel several enduring patterns:

• God provides the refuge; the refugee only flees to it.
• Justice is preserved, not bypassed; the refuge is for the innocent and the case must be judged.
• Release comes through the death of the anointed high priest, not through payment or merit.
• The stranger is included, anticipating the ingathering of the nations.

Redemption accomplished. Every one of these patterns finds its fulfillment in Christ. He is God’s appointed refuge (Hebrews 6:18), the holy One set apart for our sake (John 17:19), the High Priest whose death “redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). Yet He surpasses the type. The cities could shelter only the innocent; Christ shelters the guilty, because He bore their guilt Himself (1 Peter 2:24). The cities’ high priest died and was replaced; Christ died, rose, and “holds his priesthood permanently” (Hebrews 7:24). The cities served one nation in one land; Christ is refuge for Jew and Gentile alike (Ephesians 2:13–19).

The New Covenant and the already/not yet. Believers already possess the refuge. They have fled to Christ, they are hidden in Him (Colossians 3:3), and there is no condemnation for them (Romans 8:1). The High Priest has died; the verdict is settled. Yet they have not yet come fully home. Like the refugee who waited in the city, the church waits for the redemption of the body and the fullness of the inheritance (Romans 8:23; 1 Peter 1:4). The avenger of blood has no claim on them, but death, the last enemy, has not yet been destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Consummation. At Christ’s return the waiting ends. The inheritance will be entered in full, the accuser will be silenced forever, and in the new creation “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4). There will be no avenger because there will be no bloodshed; no refuge will be needed because the whole creation will be the dwelling of God with His people (Revelation 21:3). The gates of that city “will never be shut by day” (Revelation 21:25). Joshua 20 is one signpost on the road to that city, pointing every hunted sinner to the Refuge who is Himself the way home.

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Systematic Theology Connection

The Providence of God

Joshua 20 deals with deaths that no human being intended, yet Scripture refuses to call them chance. The original law says of the accidental killing that “God let him fall into his hand” (Exodus 21:13). The axe head that flies from the handle (Deuteronomy 19:5) is as much under God’s government as the lot cast into the lap (Proverbs 16:33) or the sparrow that falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29).

The Westminster Standards state this with care. God’s works of providence are “his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions” (WSC 11). The Confession adds that although all things come to pass infallibly according to God’s decree, “yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently” (WCF 5.2). The accidental killing is a contingent event: God governs it, and it truly happens through second causes that could have fallen otherwise.

This doctrine shapes how the passage is applied:

• It rules out fatalism. Because God works through second causes, the law still requires care, precaution and responsibility (Deuteronomy 22:8).
• It rules out despair. A person who has caused an accidental death may be tempted to think the world is random or that he is cursed. Providence assures him that nothing fell outside the Lord’s hand (Psalm 31:15).
• It supports justice. God’s sovereignty over the event does not erase the distinction between intent and accident; the law judges the heart, while God orders the outcome (Acts 2:23; Genesis 50:20).

Practically, believers can grieve tragic accidents without accusing God of cruelty or themselves of murder. God’s providence is perfectly wise and good, and even in events we cannot understand He remains the Father who works all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). The refuge cities themselves are an act of providence: God, foreseeing what would happen in Israel’s fields and forests, prepared shelter in advance.

The Sanctity of Life and the Sixth Commandment

The cities of refuge exist because human life is sacred. The law made even the unintentional manslayer leave home and live in another town until the high priest died. Calvin explains the purpose: “For that temporary exile clearly showed how precious human blood is in the sight of God” (Calvin, Commentary on Joshua, on 20:1). The foundation is God’s word to Noah: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).

The Westminster Standards unfold the sixth commandment in both directions. Positively, it “requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others” (WSC 68). The Larger Catechism lists among its duties “comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent” (WLC 135), which is exactly what the elders of the refuge cities were to do. Negatively, the commandment forbids not only unjust killing but “sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge” (WLC 136), which is precisely the passion the refuge law restrained in the avenger of blood.

The passage illustrates the doctrine in several ways:

• Intent matters. The law distinguishes the one who “did not hate him in the past” (v. 5) from the murderer, anticipating Jesus’ teaching that hatred is murder of the heart (Matthew 5:21–22; 1 John 3:15).
• Protection of the innocent is a duty. The elders were forbidden to hand over the refugee (v. 5).
• Revenge is restrained. The avenger’s grief was real, but it could not become a license to kill (Romans 12:19).

For believers today, the sixth commandment calls for vigilance against anger and resentment, active protection of the vulnerable, care for safety in ordinary life, and a readiness to shelter those whose lives are threatened.

The Justice and Mercy of God

Joshua 20 displays God’s justice and mercy working together rather than in competition. Justice is maintained: the willful murderer receives no refuge (Exodus 21:14), no ransom can buy his life (Numbers 35:31), and even the manslayer must stand trial (v. 6). Mercy is extended: the one who killed without intent is sheltered, given a place, and eventually restored to his home (vv. 4, 6). Calvin’s verdict on the law is apt: “Thus the law was just, equitable, and useful, as well in a public as in a private point of view” (Calvin, Commentary on Joshua, on 20:1).

The Westminster Confession states that in the justification of sinners God acts “that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified” (WCF 11.3). The refuge cities preview that harmony on a small scale. At the cross it appears in full: God put forward Christ “as a propitiation by his blood” (Romans 3:25), “so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Thomas Watson uses the very image of this chapter to describe the difference between the two covenants: “Under the first covenant, the justice of God, as an avenger of blood, pursues us; but if we get into the second covenant we are in the city of refuge, we are safe, and the justice of God is pacified towards us” (Watson, A Body of Divinity, on the covenant of works). Watson’s point is not that justice is set aside, but that it is satisfied.

Practical implications:

• Do not play God’s attributes against each other. Mercy that ignores justice is sentimentality; justice without mercy is not the justice of the God of Joshua 20.
• Reflect both in human relationships. Families, churches and courts should protect the innocent and restrain vengeance while still dealing honestly with wrongdoing (Micah 6:8).
• Rest in the cross. The believer’s safety does not depend on God overlooking sin but on God having dealt with it in Christ (Psalm 85:10).

The Priestly Office of Christ

The most striking feature of Joshua 20 is that the refugee’s release depended on “the death of him who is high priest at the time” (v. 6). Whatever precise meaning Israel attached to that provision, it placed the refugee’s future in the hands of the anointed mediator (Numbers 35:25).

The Shorter Catechism summarizes Christ’s priestly work: “Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us” (WSC 25). Both parts of that answer illuminate the chapter:

• Christ’s once-for-all offering. Israel’s high priest died once, and his death marked the refugee’s release. Christ “entered once for all into the holy places” (Hebrews 9:12) by His own blood, and His death “redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15).
• Christ’s continual intercession. Unlike Aaron’s line, Christ “holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever” (Hebrews 7:24). There will be no second death to wait for and no successor to change the terms; He “always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

The Confession adds that the Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice, “hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him” (WCF 8.5). The refugee returned “to his own town and his own home” (v. 6); the believer is restored to an eternal inheritance.

Practical implications follow. Believers need no other priest, human or angelic, to mediate their standing before God (1 Timothy 2:5). They may approach God with confidence because their High Priest is both merciful and faithful (Hebrews 2:17; 4:14–16). And they may face their own death without fear, because the decisive death has already occurred.

Justification and Union with Christ

The refugee’s safety depended entirely on where he was. Inside the city he could not be touched; outside it he was exposed (Numbers 35:26–28). His status was determined not by his own strength but by his location within the appointed refuge.

That picture corresponds to the Reformed doctrine of justification through union with Christ. God justifies sinners “not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone” (WCF 11.1). Justification is “an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone” (WSC 33). Paul’s longing is to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9).

Matthew Henry connects these texts directly to the refuge cities. Believers, he says, are found in Christ as in a sanctuary, “where they are privileged from arrests, and there is now no condemnation to them” (Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Joshua 20:1–6). The phrase echoes Paul: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The passage also marks the difference between the type and the reality. The refugee was protected because he was innocent of murder. The believer is protected though guilty, because Christ’s righteousness is counted as his (2 Corinthians 5:21). The refugee’s safety was provisional until the trial; the believer’s verdict has already been pronounced (Romans 8:33–34).

Practical implications:

• Assurance rests on location, not on feelings. The refugee was safe inside the walls whether he felt safe or not.
• Remain in Christ. Leaving the city meant exposure; abiding in Christ is the life of faith (John 15:4).
• No additions. Nothing we add, whether works, rituals or sufferings, increases the safety that union with Christ provides (Galatians 2:16).

Saving Faith

The New Testament describes believers as those “who have fled for refuge” (Hebrews 6:18). Faith, in this image, is flight: a sinner, aware of pursuing judgment, runs to the refuge God has appointed. Charles Hodge makes the connection explicit: “Sinners are exhorted to flee to Christ as a refuge. The man-slayer fled to the city of refuge because he relied upon it as a place of safety” (Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, on faith). Trust, not merely knowledge, is the heart of faith.

The Larger Catechism describes justifying faith as a grace by which the sinner is “convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition” (WLC 72). That is the manslayer’s condition: he cannot defend himself against the avenger, and no one but the appointed city can protect him. The Shorter Catechism completes the picture: “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel” (WSC 86).

Several features of the refuge law illustrate the nature of faith:

• Faith is urgent. The manslayer did not delay; the avenger was near (Deuteronomy 19:6; 2 Corinthians 6:2).
• Faith is directed. Only the appointed cities protected; faith rests on Christ alone as He is offered in the gospel (Acts 4:12).
• Faith is not merit. The city saved the refugee, not the speed of his running. Weak faith in a strong Savior is safe.
• Faith abides. The refugee remained in the city; true faith continues in Christ (Colossians 1:23).

Practically, this doctrine invites every hearer to flee to Christ now, without waiting to feel worthy, and it comforts believers whose faith feels small. The strength of the refuge, not the strength of the one who runs, secures salvation.

The Law of God and Its General Equity

The cities of refuge belong to Israel’s judicial law, the civil legislation God gave to Israel as a nation in the land. The Westminster Confession explains their continuing authority precisely: “To them also, as a body politic, he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require” (WCF 19.4). Charles Hodge applies the principle to this very institution: “Homicide is as great a crime now as under the Mosaic economy, but the old laws about the avenger of blood and cities of refuge are no longer in force” (Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, on the Fourth Commandment).

What, then, is the general equity of Joshua 20? Several abiding principles emerge:

• Intent matters in judgment. Accidental killing and murder are not the same crime (Exodus 21:12–14).
• The accused deserves protection before trial. The refugee was taken in and protected until judged (vv. 4, 6).
• Judgment belongs to lawful authority, not private vengeance. God has “armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evildoers” (WCF 23.1).
• Justice is not for sale. No ransom could buy a murderer’s life or a refugee’s early release (Numbers 35:31–32).
• Equal protection extends to foreigners. The stranger received the same refuge as the native (v. 9; Exodus 12:49).

These principles have shaped Western law in its distinctions between murder and manslaughter, its presumption of innocence and its insistence on due process. Christians can advocate such justice without claiming that the Mosaic judicial code binds modern nations in its details.

The ceremonial dimension, the connection with the high priest and the Levitical cities, pointed to Christ and is fulfilled in Him (WCF 19.3). The moral foundation, the sanctity of life, binds all people always (WCF 19.5). Joshua 20 thus illustrates all three aspects of the law in one institution, and helps believers read the Old Testament law with both reverence and discernment.

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Reformed Theology

One covenant of grace, differently administered. Reformed theology reads Joshua 20 within the single covenant of grace that runs from Genesis 3:15 to the new creation. The Westminster Confession teaches that under the law the covenant was administered “by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying Christ to come” (WCF 7.5), and that there are “not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations” (WCF 7.6). The cities of refuge are among those ordinances. Matthew Henry introduces the chapter with the words, “And this remedial law was a figure of good things to come” (Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Joshua 20), echoing Hebrews 10:1.

Typology grounded in the text. Geerhardus Vos taught that a type must first be understood as a symbol within its own setting before its forward-pointing meaning can be traced; the typical meaning grows out of the symbolic, not out of the interpreter’s imagination. Applied here, the refuge cities first teach Israel that God guards innocent life, restrains vengeance and provides mediation through the priesthood. Only on that basis do they point forward to Christ, the refuge of sinners and the High Priest whose death sets captives free (Hebrews 6:18; 9:15).

Theme-by-theme exposition.

• Divine initiative (vv. 1–2). The refuge is God’s appointment, as salvation is God’s work from first to last (Jonah 2:9; Ephesians 2:8–9).
• The heart in judgment (vv. 3, 5). The law’s attention to intent anticipates Christ’s exposition of the sixth commandment (Matthew 5:21–22).
• Due process and mercy (vv. 4–6). Justice and grace cooperate, as they do supremely at the cross (Romans 3:25–26).
• The high priest’s death (v. 6). Reformed commentators differ over whether that death was itself expiatory. Calvin speaks of a renewal of grace at the succession of a new priest; Keil, on Numbers 35, saw it as a type of Christ’s atoning death. Both readings agree that release came through the high priest and not through the refugee.
• Holy, priestly cities (vv. 7–8). Refuge is joined to the Word and worship of God, as the church is both shelter and school (1 Timothy 3:15).
• The sojourner (v. 9). The inclusion of the stranger anticipates the one new humanity in Christ (Ephesians 2:14–19).

Israel and the church. Reformed theology sees the church as the continuation and fulfillment of Israel, the one people of God gathered around the Messiah (Galatians 3:29; 6:16). The land institutions of Israel are not therefore awaiting a future national reinstatement; their substance has arrived in Christ, and their fullest geographic expression awaits the new earth (Romans 4:13; Hebrews 11:16). G. K. Beale’s work on the temple and land themes traces how the land promises widen in the New Testament to embrace the renewed creation.

The preachers. John Owen, expounding Hebrews 6:18, inclined to read the phrase fled for refuge as an allusion to the manslayer, because the apostle would “more willingly allude to a Hebrew custom, writing to the Hebrews touching an institution of God, and that directly typical of the matter he had in hand” (Owen, Sermon, The Strength of Faith). Sinclair Ferguson has often stressed that Christ Himself, not merely His benefits, is the believer’s refuge, and R. C. Sproul regularly presented the cross as the place where God’s justice and mercy meet. Joshua 20 gathers these emphases into a single picture: the hunted sinner, the open gate, the holy city and the High Priest whose death brings him home.

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Dispensational Theology

The dispensational framework. Dispensational theology locates Joshua 20 within the dispensation of law, the period from Sinai to the cross in which God governed Israel as a theocratic nation through the Mosaic covenant. Its hallmark is a consistently literal-grammatical hermeneutic and a firm distinction between Israel and the church. The cities of refuge are therefore first and foremost Israel’s civil institutions, given to a particular nation in a particular land under a particular covenant.

Literal meaning first. Writers such as Charles Ryrie and J. Dwight Pentecost insist that the primary meaning of such texts is their plain historical sense: six real cities, a real legal procedure, and a real high priest whose death ended the manslayer’s confinement. Dispensationalists readily acknowledge typology, and the Scofield Reference Bible tradition treats the cities as a picture of Christ sheltering the sinner from judgment. But they generally treat such typology as illustration and application rather than as a key that transfers Israel’s institutions to the church.

The manslayer as a picture of Israel. A distinctive reading in the older dispensational and Brethren tradition associated with J. N. Darby and C. H. Mackintosh sees the manslayer as a picture of the nation of Israel. On this view, Israel killed its Messiah in ignorance, as Peter says, “I know that you acted in ignorance” (Acts 3:17), and Jesus prayed for His killers as those who “know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Israel is therefore not a willful murderer beyond hope but an unintentional manslayer. During the present age, the nation is outside its full inheritance, preserved by God among the nations. When Christ’s present priestly ministry in heaven gives way to His return as King-Priest, Israel will be restored to the land of its possession, just as the manslayer returned home after the high priest’s death (Numbers 35:28). The prophets’ promises of national restoration (Ezekiel 36:24–28; Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:26) are read as the fulfillment of this pattern.

Future for national Israel. Dispensational writers such as John Walvoord emphasize that the land promises to Abraham (Genesis 15:18–21) remain unfulfilled in their full extent and will be realized in the millennial kingdom. Joshua 20, with its detailed geography, is read as a real foretaste of that future ordering of the land under the Messiah’s rule. Progressive dispensationalists such as Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock see more continuity, allowing that the church already shares in the spiritual blessings of the new covenant, as in Hebrews 6:18, while maintaining that the national and territorial promises still await literal fulfillment for Israel.

Application to the church. For dispensationalists, Hebrews 6:18 is an analogy the church may legitimately use; the believer flees to Christ as the manslayer fled to the city. But the church does not replace Israel as the heir of the land institutions.

Where the traditions differ. Reformed and dispensational readers agree that the cities point to Christ, that Christ receives those who flee to Him, and that Israel’s ignorance at the cross did not place it beyond mercy (Romans 11:1–2). They differ on whether the pattern of exile and return in the refuge law is a prophecy of Israel’s national future or a type fulfilled in Christ for Jew and Gentile together. The Reformed reading notes that Hebrews applies the refuge image to all believers, and that the “promised eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15) is the new-creation inheritance of the whole people of God. Both traditions, however, rightly insist that no one is safe merely by being near the city; each person must flee to Christ.

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Bibliography

Scripture

• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001 (text edition 2016).

Commentaries

• Barnes, Albert. Notes on the Bible: Joshua. 1834.
• Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Book of Joshua. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1854.
• Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony. Translated by Charles William Bingham. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1852–1855.
• Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible. 1746–1763.
• Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete and Concise). 1706.
• Keil, C. F., and F. Delitzsch. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and The Pentateuch. 1857–1878.
• Poole, Matthew. Annotations upon the Holy Bible. 1683–1685.
• Spence, H. D. M., and Joseph S. Exell, eds. The Pulpit Commentary: Joshua. 1880–1897.

Confessional Standards

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), chapters 5, 7, 8, 11, 19 and 23.
• The Westminster Larger Catechism (1648), Questions 72, 135 and 136.
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648), Questions 11, 25, 33, 68 and 86.

Theological and Devotional Works

• Edersheim, Alfred. Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ. 1876.
• Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology. 3 vols. 1871–1873.
• Owen, John. The Strength of Faith (posthumous sermon). In The Works of John Owen, vol. 9. Edited by William H. Goold. 1850–1853.
• Spurgeon, C. H. Morning and Evening. 1865–1866.
• Spurgeon, C. H. Means for Restoring the Banished (Sermon No. 950). Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.
• Spurgeon, C. H. Strong Consolation for the Lord’s Refugees (Sermon No. 1352). Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.
• Spurgeon, C. H. The Sinner’s Refuge (Sermon No. 2621). Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.
• Watson, Thomas. A Body of Divinity. 1692.

Reformed Biblical Theology

• Beale, G. K. The Temple and the Church’s Mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.
• Ferguson, Sinclair B. The Whole Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016.
• Sproul, R. C. The Holiness of God. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1985.
• Vos, Geerhardus. Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948.

Dispensational Works

• Blaising, Craig A., and Darrell L. Bock. Progressive Dispensationalism. Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1993.
• Darby, J. N. Synopsis of the Books of the Bible. 1857–1867.
• Mackintosh, C. H. Notes on the Book of Numbers. 1869.
• Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958.
• Ryrie, Charles C. Dispensationalism. Chicago: Moody Press, 1995.
• Scofield, C. I., ed. The Scofield Reference Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1917.
• Walvoord, John F. The Millennial Kingdom. Findlay, OH: Dunham, 1959.