Lexicon :: Strong's H5892 - ʿîr

“But we took all the livestock and the spoil from the cities as plunder for ourselves.

“all the cities of the plateau, Gilead, and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.

“At that time we took possession of this land. I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Aroer by the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead along with its cities.

“But your wives, dependents, and livestock ​— ​I know that you have a lot of livestock ​— ​will remain in the cities I have given you

Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive:

“that wicked men have sprung up among you, led the inhabitants of their city astray, and said, ‘Let’s go and worship other gods,’ which you have not known,

“you must strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Completely destroy everyone in it as well as its livestock with the sword.

“You are to gather all its spoil in the middle of the city square and completely burn the city and all its spoil for the LORD your God. The city is to remain a mound of ruins forever; it is not to be rebuilt.

“you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

“If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

“This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves.

“provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the LORD your God and walking in his ways at all times ​— ​you are to add three more cities to these three.

“But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities,

“the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die.

“But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city ​— ​all its spoil ​— ​as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

“This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations.

“However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you?

“But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

“The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work.

“The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream.

“All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken.

“his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown.

“They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’

“Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

“He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, “I didn’t find any evidence of your daughter’s virginity,” but here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ They will spread out the cloth before the city elders.

Then the elders of that city will take the man and punish him.

they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.

“If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

“take the two of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death ​— ​the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s fiancée. You must purge the evil from you.

“You will be cursed in the city

and cursed in the country.

“Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the rams’ horns.

“When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the troops will advance, each man straight ahead.”

He said to the troops, “Move forward, march around the city, and have the armed men go ahead of the ark of the LORD.”

So the ark of the LORD was carried around the city, circling it once. They returned to the camp and spent the night there.[fn]

On the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.