Joshua 20:2

_SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, SAYING, APPOINT OUT FOR YOU CITIES OF REFUGE, WHEREOF I SPAKE UNTO YOU BY THE HAND OF MOSES:_ Appoint out for you cities of refuge - (see Numbers 35:9; Deuteronomy 19:1.) The command here recorded was given on their going to occupy their allotted settlements. The sanctuaries were not temples or altars, as in other countries, but inhabited cities; and the design was not to screen criminals, but only to afford the homicide protection from the vengeance of the deceased's relatives, until it should have been ascertained whether the death had resulted from accident and momentary passion, or from premeditated malice. The institution of the cities of refuge, together with the rules prescribed for the guidance of those who sought an asylum within their walls,

1-6 When the Israelites were settled in their promised inheritance, they were reminded to set apart the cities of refuge, whose use and typical meaning have been explained, Joshua 20:35; Joshua 20:19. God's spiritual Israel have, and shall have in Christ and heaven, not only rest to repose in, but refuge to secure themselves in. These cities were designed to typify the relief which the gospel provides for penitent sinners, and their protection from the curse of the law and the wrath of God, in our Lord Jesus, to whom believers flee for refuge, Hebrews 6:18....

Verse Joshua 20:2. _CITIES OF REFUGE_] An institution of this kind was essentially necessary wherever the patriarchal law relative to the right of redemption and the avenging of blood was in force; we have already seen that the _nearest of kin_ to a deceased person had not only the right of redeeming an inheritance that had been forfeited or alienated, but had also authority to slay on the spot the person who had slain his relative. Now, as a man might _casually_ kill another against whom he had no ill-will, and with whom he had no quarrel, and might have his life taken away by him who was called the _avenger of blood_, though he had not forfeited his life to the law; therefore these privileged cities were appointed, where the person might have protection till the cause had been fully heard by the magistrates, who certainly had authority to deliver him up to the avenger, if...

EXPOSITION THE CITIES OF REFUGE.— JOSHUA 20:1 CITIES OF REFUGE. The original is more definite, the cities of refuge. So LXX. WHEREOF I SPAKE TO YOU. In Exodus 21:13; Numbers 35:9; Deuteronomy 19:2. Here, again, Joshua is represented as aware of the existence of the Pentateuch. It must, therefore, have existed in something like its present shape when the Book of Joshua was written. The words are partly quoted from Numbers and partly from Deuteronomy; another proof that these book

SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, SAYING,.... Whom the affair concerned the Lord spake to Joshua about, they having now the whole land divided among them: APPOINT OUT FOR YOU CITIES OF REFUGE; of the name, nature, use, and number of these cities, Numbers 35:6; WHEREOF I SPAKE UNTO YOU BY THE HAND OF MOSES: Numbers 35:1....

7. THE CITIES OF REFUGE CHAPTER 20 _ 1. The ordinance repeated (Joshua 20:1)_ 2. The cities named (Joshua 20:7) The reader will find the meaning of the ordinance of the cities of refuge in Numbers and Deuteronomy, so that we do not need to repeat it here. But only three cities are mentioned in the Pentateuch. Here the three cities in the land are added. Kedesh was in Naphtah, Kedesh means “sanctuary,” and Naphtali means “wrestler-struggler.” Christ is the refuge for the struggling sinner. Shechem means “shoulder,” and is the type of service. He who is the perfect servant, who ministered and gave His life, is the place of refuge. Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, is the third, and Hebron means “communion.” This we find in Him. Bezer (defense), Ramoth (heights) and Golan (rejoicing) wer

JOSHUA 20. THE CITIES OF REFUGE. The cities of refuge (p. 113) were not appointed till after the Deuteronomic reform under Josiah in Joshua 6:21. In early times the asylum or refuge for the manslayer was the altar at the local sanctuary. This is seen from the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21:14): If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from my altar that he may die. See also 1 Kings 1:50, where Adonijah, in fear of his life, flees to the altar for safety. When the law of the single sanctuary was promulgated in Dt., other provision had to be made for asylum; hence the institution of the cities of refuge. As Dt. says that Moses commanded the institution of these cities, a later wr

CHILDREN. sons....

_cities of refuge_ "The cityes of fugityues," Wyclif. Prior to the Mosaic age, it was required of the nearest of kin, as a matter of duty, to avenge the death of a slain relative. He was called the _Goel_or _Avenger_, and together with his office inherited the property of the deceased. Sometimes a whole family took upon them this duty (2 Samuel 14:7). Among the Arab tribes of the present day, "any bloodshed whatever, whether wilful or accidental, laid the homicide open to the _duteous_revenge of the relatives and family of the slain person, who again in their turn were then similarly watched and hunted by the opposite party, until a family war of extermination had legally settled itself from generation to generation, without the least prospect of a peaceful termination." It was the aim of the Mosaic Law, without altogether abolishing this long-established custom, to mitigate it

_VER._ 1-6. _THE LORD ALSO SPAKE UNTO JOSHUA, SAYING,_ &C.— The great work of distributing the lands being now finished, God orders Joshua to put the last hand to the settlement of the cities of refuge, upon the footing which he had specified to Moses. See on Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19. The slayer was to _stand at the gate of the city,_ ver. 4 as being the place where the courts of justice were held....