Bible Strands
Joshua 20:4
When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before its elders, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joshua addresses the Israelite assembly while establishing the procedural rules for the newly designated cities of refuge. This instruction occurs during the final distribution of the land, outlining how the legal system will protect those who have committed unintentional homicide.
The words — וְ/עָמַד (ve./'a.Mad) = and he will stand [H5975] and פֶּ֚תַח שַׁ֣עַר (Pe.tach Sha.'ar) = entrance of the gate [H6607, H8179]. These terms specify the exact physical location where the fleeing person must present himself to initiate the asylum process.
The thread — The city gate functions as the official venue for legal and civic proceedings, a pattern repeated in Ruth 4:1 and Job 5:4. These passages confirm the gate as the recognized space for public testimony, judicial oversight, and communal accountability.
Why it lands — The text requires the fugitive to physically approach the gate and verbally present his case rather than remain hidden. The reader must recognize that divine provision for refuge operates through established civic procedure, demanding active compliance with the elders' judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 38:7 Now Ebed-melech the Cushite, a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,
- Ruth 4:1 Meanwhile, Boaz went to the gate and sat down there. Soon the kinsman-redeemer of whom he had spoken came along, and Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
- Job 5:4 His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- Job 29:7 When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,
- Psalms 26:9 Do not take my soul away with sinners, or my life with men of bloodshed,
- Proverbs 31:23 Her husband is known at the city gates, where he sits among the elders of the land.
- Hebrews 6:18 Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.