Week 6    Day 1

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Cities of Refuge Generally

Joshua 20

1 And Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying,

2 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses,

3 that the manslayer who smites a soul in ignorance without knowledge may flee thither; and they shall be to you for a refuge from the redeemer of blood.

4 And he shall flee to one of these cities and stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and he shall speak his words in the ears of the elders of that city, and they shall take him into the city to them, and give to him a place, and he shall dwell with them.

5 And if the redeemer of blood pursues after him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, for he smote his companion without knowing, and he was not hating him from yesterday and the day before.

6 And he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the great priest who shall be in those days; then the manslayer shall return and come out to his own city and to his own house, to the city from whence he fled.

7 And they sanctified Kedesh in Galilee in Mount Naphtali, and Shechem in the mountain of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba, it is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.

8 And from across Jordan by Jericho toward the sunrise, they gave Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

9 These are the cities of congregating for all the sons of Israel, and for the sojourner who sojourns in their midst, that everyone who smites a soul in ignorance might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the redeemer of blood until he stands before the congregation.

“The manslayer who smites a soul in ignorance without knowledge”

AC 9011. Then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee [Exodus 21:13]. That this signifies a state of blamelessness, and that is exempt from punishment, is evident from the signification of “place,” as being state... and from the signification of “an asylum,” or a place to which he should flee who unexpectedly, or by chance, had killed anyone, as being a state of blamelessness, and thus exempt from punishment. For those who had smitten anyone by chance, that is, without intent, thus not with premeditation, nor from an evil affection which is of the will, were not in any fault of their own; and therefore, when such people came to a place of asylum, they were exempt from punishment. By these people were represented those who, not from set purpose, injure anyone in respect to the truths and goods of faith, and consequently extinguish his spiritual life, for such are in a blameless state and one exempt from punishment. For instance, such are those who have complete faith in their religious [beliefs], which are also in what is false, and who, because of this, reason against the truth and good of faith and thus persuade, as heretics will sometimes do who are conscientious and consequently are zealots.

AC 9011:2. That such persons were represented by those who were to flee to asylums is evident in Moses:

You shall select suitable cities, which shall be cities of refuge for you; that the manslayer may flee there who smites a soul through error; as if he has struck him unexpectedly, without enmity, or has cast upon him any instrument without set purpose, or with any stone with which he may die, not seeing him, so that he makes it fall on him and he dies, when yet he was not his enemy, neither sought his evil (Num. 35:11, 22, 23).

This is the word of the manslayer, who shall flee there that he may live, when he has smitten his companion unawares, when he was not his hater yesterday and the day before, when he come into the forest with his companion to hew wood, but when his hand has struck with the axe to cut the wood, and the iron has been shaken off from the wood and has found his companion, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities, that he may live (Deut. 19:4-5)

AC 9011:3. Here is described the state of one who is blameless and exempt from punishment, and who has injured someone by the falsities of faith which he had believed to be truths, or by means of memory-knowledges derived from the fallacies of the senses, and thus has done injury to the internal or spiritual life of the other. In order that this might be signified, such error or chance is described by an instrument of some kind, and by a stone which he cast upon his companion so that he died, and likewise by an axe or its iron falling from its wood while they were both hewing wood in the forest. The reason why this is described by such things is that “an instrument” signifies memory-knowledge; “a stone” the truth of faith, and in the opposite sense falsity; in like manner “the iron of an axe;” and “to hew wood” signifies disputation concerning good from one’s religious [belief].

Why Six Cities of Refuge?

AR 610:2. That “six” signifies what is full and all, and is used where the truths of good are treated of, may appear from those passages in the Word where that number occurs; but the signification of this number does not clearly appear except to those who see the things concerning which it treats in the spiritual sense, as when the Lord said... that there should be six cities of refuge or asylums (Num. 35:6, 7; Deut. 19:1-9).

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