Chapter 20 The Cities of Refuge Appointed.
This chapter tells of the renewal of the command to appoint cities of refuge so that they would be available for those who committed manslaughter ‘unwittingly' to flee to. There they would find refuge from the avenger of blood. The orders are then carried out and cities appointed. To appreciate the importance of this we need to recognise the stress laid in those days, in all societies in the area, on the fact that it was the responsibility of the family to revenge the blood of a member of the family. It was felt that they should not rest until the family member was avenged. This had been so from earliest times (Genesis 4:14).
‘ And YHWH spoke to Joshua, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign for yourselves the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses, so that the manslayer who kills a person unwittingly and unawares may flee there. And they shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.' ” '
How God spoke to Joshua we are not told. It may be that it occurred in the Tent of Meeting where God communed with Joshua in some mystic way, for like Moses Joshua appears to have had special access into the presence of YHWH (Exodus 33:11). Or it may have been as he meditated on the Book of the Law (see Numbers 35:9-15; Deuteronomy 19:1-13). While the people were in the wilderness the right of sanctuary was obtainable at the altar (Exodus 21:14), a right later exercised by Adonijah and Joab (1 Kings 1:50-52; 1 Kings 2:28), although finally to no avail for they were found guilty. But once the people were spread through the land the altar was far away and it was necessary that closer sanctuary be provided to prevent blood vengeance on innocent men.
Thus YHWH had provide for the establishment of cities of refuge so that once a man reached such a city he was safe from family vengeance until the case had been heard before a proper court, at which point if he was found innocent he would be able to return to or remain in the city of refuge and be safe (Numbers 35:9-15; Deuteronomy 19:1-13). The refuge was for those who had killed accidentally, not for deliberate murder. To take blood vengeance on a man in a city of refuge was a heinous crime and made the perpetrator himself a murderer, whereas seemingly blood vengeance elsewhere did not. But the blood relative had the right to demand that there should be a trial.
“The avenger of blood” is literally ‘redeemer of blood'. The Hebrew is ‘goel had-dam'. A ‘goel' is one who acts as next of kin, whether by marrying a kinsman's widow (Ruth 3:12 on); by exacting a payment due to the deceased (Numbers 5:8); by buying a kinsman out of slavery; by buying back a field which had been sold through poverty (Leviticus 25:48; Leviticus 25:25) or by buying back an estate into the family (Jeremiah 32:7 on). As redeemer of blood he exacts recompense on behalf of the dead man. It was thus not seen as murder but as justice, a life for a life. Indeed to fail to do so would bring the family into disrepute.