That is why those who speak in proverbs ¹  say, “Come to Heshbon, let it be built. Let the city of Sihon be established! ² 

“So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled,

So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger, ¹  and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now ²  we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country. ³ 

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at a city of Moab which was on the border of the Arnon at the boundary of his territory.

and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood,

And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest. ¹ 

For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites. Now he had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all of his land from his control, ¹  as far as the Arnon.

Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. ¹  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ¹  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.