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“Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘Designate the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city; and they shall take him into the city to them and give him a place, so that he may dwell among them. Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand. He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the manslayer shall return to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled. So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. Beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally may flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation.” Joshua‬ ‭20‬:‭1‬-‭9‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Everything about the cities of refuge points us to Jesus. There are six cities. Our high priest died for us. Because He died, we are set free from the sin we committed. In His death, we rest. In other words, the six cities represent the time of working of the Lord and we have rest from death because of His death. We have eternal life.

The cities were for those who did not mean to kill another. Jesus said, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
In Hebrew the names are important.

Kedesh in Naphtali means holy place in wrestling, the curse, the sea (place of sin) the sixth (mortal man without rest) and the south or the place that God established as holy upon entering. 

Shechem in Ephraim means the shoulder (Israel’s high priest carried the names of Israel on his shoulders and Jesus carries us upon His shoulders as a shepherd carries his lambs), double ash heap to double fruitful (the double blessing of the Lord), the first-born (that’s us), hill country, which is where we run to, which is Jesus.

Hebron in Judah means association, Abraham built an altar, near the Oaks, given to Caleb as an inheritance, praised, from where Jesus came from.

Bezer in Reuben means gold and a remote fortress that has been brought near to us.

Ramoth in Gad means heights, on top of a mountain, and pasture lands for sheep.

Golan in Manasseh means from their captivity to their rejoicing and causing to forget, and Isaiah told us to forget the former things because God is doing a new thing.

Rueben and Gad mean behold a son and an attacker or army.

Every bit of this represents what Jesus did for us. Amazing. Jesus truly is our city of refuge where we can run when overwhelmed by the world.