Joshua 20 Summary and Study Guide

A man arrives at a city gate and stands there telling the elders what he has done. He has killed someone, and whether he lives depends on what they decide. This Joshua 20 summary and study guide covers the six cities that existed for that exact moment, and the law God gave to govern it.

Setting the Stage

Long before Israel owned a foot of Canaan, God told Moses to set aside towns where a man who killed by accident could run and be safe until his case was heard (Exodus 21:13; Numbers 35:9-15). Moses started it. He set apart three towns on the east bank of the Jordan, where Israel already held ground (Deuteronomy 4:41-43).

The other three had to wait. Moses tied them to the day God would cut off the nations and hand Israel their cities, and that day had not come (Deuteronomy 19:1-2). Chapters 13 through 19 finally divide Canaan among the tribes, and the moment the map is settled, the wait is over.

Comprehensive Joshua 20 Summary

God speaks to Joshua and tells him to appoint the cities of refuge He had already described through Moses. Nothing new is being legislated here. An old command is finally being carried out, now that the tribes have their territory.

The provision is narrow and deliberate. It covers a man who kills another person accidentally, without knowing what he was doing, and it shields him from the avenger of blood, the relative responsible for answering a killing in that family. Murder falls outside it entirely.

The process is public rather than secret. The man runs to one of the appointed cities and goes straight to the place where its elders heard legal business, so the first thing he does is say out loud what he has done. The text moves straight from his account to their welcome: they take him in and give him somewhere to live. When the avenger arrives, they refuse to hand him over, on one stated ground: the blow was an accident, and the two men had been on good terms until that day.

His safety is not the end of it. He waits in that city for the whole community to judge his case, and then he waits again, until the high priest of that time dies. Only then may he go back to his own town and his own house.

Israel obeys. Three cities are set apart west of the Jordan: Kedesh in Naphtali in the north, Shechem in Ephraim in the centre, and Hebron in Judah in the south.

Three more are confirmed east of the river: Bezer in Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in Gad, and Golan in Bashan in Manasseh. The chapter closes by widening the provision. These cities are for every Israelite and for the foreigner living among them alike.

One Word Summary

• Refuge: the chapter’s own word, and the whole reason the cities exist.
• Intent: the one thing that decides whether a man lives or dies here.
• Access: six towns spread across the country so nobody is out of reach.

In One Sentence

God tells Joshua to appoint six cities where a man who has killed someone by accident can be safe from the dead man’s family until his case is heard, and Israel sets apart Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron west of the Jordan and Bezer, Ramoth and Golan east of it.

Theme of Joshua 20

Joshua 20 is about mercy built into law. God designed this protection before Israel owned any ground, and here He makes sure it is finally installed. He does not soften the seriousness of a death, and He does not leave a grieving family free to decide who answers for it.

He puts a named place, a named procedure and named elders between the two, so that what a man meant is examined before what he did is punished. Two ideas run alongside that one. God’s justice weighs intent, and His protection reaches the outsider on the same terms as the insider.

Joshua 20 Outline

• Joshua 20:1-2: God tells Joshua to appoint the cities of refuge that Moses had already been given.
• Joshua 20:3: The provision is defined, covering the man who kills accidentally and protecting him from the avenger of blood.
• Joshua 20:4: The man states his case at the city gate and the elders take him in and house him.
• Joshua 20:5: The elders refuse to hand him over to the avenger, because he struck his neighbour without prior hatred.
• Joshua 20:6: He stays for his hearing before the assembly and until the high priest dies, then returns home.
• Joshua 20:7: Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron are set apart west of the Jordan.
• Joshua 20:8: Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan are assigned east of the Jordan.
• Joshua 20:9: The provision is restated for every Israelite and for the foreigner living among them.

What Happened at the City Gate

Verses 3 to 6 are God’s own words, and they set out a procedure in five steps that a man could actually follow while someone was chasing him.

• He runs. The man who “killeth any person unawares and unwittingly” makes for a city of refuge (20:3). He does not wait to be found and he does not hide.
• He stops at the gate. He “shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city” (20:4). The gate was where a town’s elders sat to hear legal business, so he goes to the courtroom before he goes anywhere else.
• He states his case. He “shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders” (20:4). He tells them out loud what happened, in public, before anyone lets him through.
• He is taken in and housed. They “shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them” (20:4). He is given a home there, not a cell.
• He waits for judgment. He stays “until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest” (20:6). A hearing before the whole assembly settles whether it was murder, and even after that he stays put.

If the avenger of blood arrives while all this is going on, the elders have their instruction: “they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand” (20:5). The wording gives them no discretion. They keep him.

The Six Cities of Refuge

Verses 7 and 8 name them, and the arrangement is a mirror. Three sit west of the Jordan and three east, and each set runs north, centre and south, so no region of the country is left without one.

Bezer, Ramoth and Golan are the three Moses had already named (Deuteronomy 4:41-43), so verse 8 is confirming them rather than choosing them. Moses had also told Israel that if God enlarged their borders as He had promised, they were to add three more (Deuteronomy 19:8-9). The count in Joshua stays at six. All six were also Levite towns (Joshua 21), which is why Joshua 21 belongs beside this chapter.

Observations from Joshua 20

God Speaks Twice in the Nine Chapters of Land Division (Joshua 20:1)

Joshua 13 through 21 divides Canaan among the tribes, and across all nine chapters God addresses Joshua directly on only two occasions. In Joshua 13:1 He tells him the land must be divided even though much of it is unclaimed.

Here in 20:1 He gives the order about the refuge towns. What lies between is almost entirely boundary lines and town lists. God opens the section by saying divide it, and closes it by saying protect a man inside it.

The Test Is What Was in the Man Before the Blow (Joshua 20:5)

The elders are given one ground for keeping him: “because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.” He struck his neighbour by accident, and he had carried no grudge against the man beforehand.

Deuteronomy applies the same measure from the other direction, defining a murderer as one who “hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him” (Deuteronomy 19:11). What decides the case is what was already in the man’s heart rather than the size of the loss, and Jesus applies that same measure when He traces murder back to anger (Matthew 5:21-22).

They Set Apart a City Whose Name Means Set Apart (Joshua 20:7)

The Hebrew word behind “they appointed” in verse 7 is qadash, which means to make holy or to set apart. The first city the verse names is Kedesh, and that name comes from the same root. Many Bible teachers read the overlap as a signal that these were consecrated places rather than merely convenient ones, chosen by God for a purpose.

The Chapter States the Condition Twice (Joshua 20:3, 20:9)

Verse 3 says the man kills “unawares and unwittingly”, and verse 9 repeats the same word at the close: “whosoever killeth any person at unawares”. A life depended on that condition being unmistakable, and the chapter takes no chances with it.

Difficult Verses Explained

Why Did the Man Have to Stay Until the High Priest Died?

Joshua 20 does not tell us. It states the rule and moves on, so anything beyond the rule is an inference and should be held loosely. Numbers 35:25 adds the one detail that has shaped most attempts at an answer: the high priest in view is the one “which was anointed with the holy oil”, which is why many Bible teachers read his death as answering in some way for the blood that had been spilled, since Numbers treats bloodshed as defiling the land itself (Numbers 35:33).

Others read it more plainly, as a fixed end point that closed a case the verdict alone could not close. God tied one man’s release to another man’s death and left the reason unstated.

If He Was Cleared, Why Could He Not Go Home?

Because being cleared of murder was never the same as being cleared of everything. A death had happened, and the law treats that as weighty enough to cost the man his freedom until the high priest died (Numbers 35:28).

So he kept his life and lost a great deal else: his house, his town, and his freedom to move, for however long that priest lived. If he stepped outside the city before then, the avenger was free to strike him down and bear no guilt for it (Numbers 35:26-27). Mercy here spared him; it did not pretend nothing had happened.

Which Side of the Jordan Is “On the Other Side Jordan by Jericho Eastward”?

The east side. Jericho stands west of the Jordan, so verse 8 is orienting the reader from where Israel now was and pointing across the river. Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan all lay on the eastern plateau, in the territory of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. Deuteronomy 4:43 lists exactly these three and places them the same way, which settles it.

Common Misunderstandings

• A murderer got no shelter here, which is the opposite of the common assumption. Deuteronomy 19:11-13 says that if a man who hated his neighbour and lay in wait for him fled to one of these cities, the elders of his own town were to send and fetch him out and hand him over. Exodus 21:14 goes further and says a deliberate murderer is to be taken even from God’s altar. Joab discovered this personally (1 Kings 2:28-34).
• The avenger of blood was held to two situations, not given a free hand. Numbers 35 limits him to a man convicted of murder and a man who left the refuge city before he was allowed to (Numbers 35:16-21, 26-28). He held a legal office, and Scripture reserves personal revenge to God alone (Romans 12:19).
• The provision covered foreigners as well as Israelites, so reading it as Israel-only misses the last verse. Verse 9 names “the stranger that sojourneth among them” in the same sentence as the children of Israel. A foreigner living in the land had the same right of refuge as anyone born there.
• The famous “Refuge” signposts on the roads are later Jewish tradition, not something the Bible reports. The Bible requires only that Israel “prepare thee a way” to the cities, meaning the roads were to be kept passable (Deuteronomy 19:3). The tradition may well reflect real practice, and it should be quoted as tradition rather than as Scripture.

Christ Connection

The New Testament picks up this chapter’s language directly. Hebrews describes believers as those “who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us”, and in the very next breath names Jesus as “an high priest for ever” (Hebrews 6:18, 20). Hebrews puts those two ideas side by side, and so does Joshua 20: somewhere to flee, and a high priest whose death decides when the fleeing ends. Christ is the refuge a guilty man runs to and the priest whose death opens the door.

The parallels the chapter supports are these:

• The cities were within reach of anyone in the land, and salvation in Christ is open to anyone who calls on Him (Romans 10:13).
• The cities were open to Israelite and foreigner alike (20:9), and in Christ “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek” (Romans 10:12).
• The cities were somewhere to live in, not visit, and the New Testament calls the believer to abide in Christ rather than to touch and go (John 15:4).
• The cities protected only inside their boundaries, and Scripture is equally plain that salvation is in Christ and in no other name (Acts 4:12).
• Freedom came at the death of the high priest, and Christ “by means of death” secured “the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament” (Hebrews 9:15).

The picture also breaks in one place, and the break is the best part of it. These cities sheltered a man who was innocent of murder; if he was guilty, the elders handed him over. Christ receives the guilty. The second difference runs the same way.

In Joshua 20 a man went free because the high priest died. The believer stays free because Christ the High Priest never dies, since He “continueth ever” and “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:24-25).

Some Bible teachers take the comparison one step further and read it back onto the men who were actually there, since Peter told the crowd he was preaching to “through ignorance ye did it” (Acts 3:17) and Jesus prayed over those at the cross “they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). That is a reading rather than something Joshua 20 states. It is worth hearing all the same, because it means the shelter God provides in Christ is held open to the very people who put Him on the cross.

When, Where, and Why

• When: In the years after the conquest, roughly a generation after Israel came out of Egypt. The tribal allotments of Joshua 13 through 19 are complete, and the Levite towns of Joshua 21 have not yet been assigned. Traditional dates place this in the fifteenth century BC, though the chronology is debated and the chapter itself gives no date.
• Where: Across the whole territory Israel now held. Kedesh sat in Galilee in the north, Shechem in the central hills between Ebal and Gerizim, and Hebron in the Judean highlands to the south. The three eastern towns stood on the high tableland across the river, on ground Israel had taken before it ever entered Canaan.
• Why: Because dividing the land was only half the work. Joshua has spent seven chapters recording who owns what, and this chapter records what happens to a person inside that territory when something goes wrong. Israel’s obedience had to reach further than borders, so the land section closes by providing for the most defenceless man in the country.

Key Verses

“Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses.” Joshua 20:2

God tells Israel to set aside the refuge cities He had already described to them through Moses. Naming Moses matters here. Joshua is not issuing a policy of his own; the command came from God through Moses, who had died before Israel ever crossed the river.

“That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.” Joshua 20:3

Anyone who kills a person accidentally, without realising what he was doing, may flee there, to one of these cities, and be safe from the relative coming after him. This is the chapter’s purpose in one line, and it is where the word “refuge” first lands.

“These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.” Joshua 20:9

These towns were set aside for every Israelite and just as much for any foreigner settled in the land. The chapter widens at its last verse rather than narrowing, and it puts the outsider inside the same protection as the citizen.

Key Lessons from Joshua 20

• God weighs what was in a man before the act, not only the damage the act caused (Joshua 20:5).
• Mercy in Scripture arrives as a structure rather than a mood, with somewhere to run, a process to follow, and men answerable for both (Joshua 20:3-6).
• Being spared and being unaffected are two different things, since he lived and still lost his home for a season (Joshua 20:6).
• The elders owed the man a home among them rather than a night at the gate, so his safety came with a place to live (Joshua 20:4).
• Israel carried out a command Moses had passed on a generation earlier, the moment doing so became possible (Joshua 20:2).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Joshua 20.

Bible Study Questions

1. Why do you think God waited until the land had been divided before telling Joshua to appoint these cities (Joshua 20:1-2)?
2. What does the test in verse 5, that the man “hated him not beforetime”, tell you about how God judges a case?
3. Why did the man have to face two hearings, one at the gate before the elders and one before the whole assembly (Joshua 20:4, 6)?
4. Read verse 6 slowly. What did the man actually lose, even after he was cleared of murder?
5. The chapter closes by putting “the stranger that sojourneth among them” under the same protection as an Israelite (Joshua 20:9). Where does that press on the way you treat people outside your own circle?
6. Where does the picture of Christ in this chapter stop working, and why is that difference worth holding on to?

Frequently Asked Questions

Joshua 20, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference. If the King James wording is hard going, you can also read Joshua 20 on Bible Gateway and switch to whichever translation you use.

1 The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying,

2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:

3 That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

4 And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.

5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.

6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.

7 And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.

8 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.