The Lord told Moses to set aside three cities of refuge in the land of Canaan west of the Jordan and three cities to the east of the Jordan (Numbers 35:14–15). We are not told that these cities were assigned by lot, though that is possible. Alternatively, Joshua reflected together with Eleazar the priest and divided the cities according to the criteria given in Deuteronomy 19:1–3. In that passage we are told that the cities must be centrally located and that there must be one city in each part of the land where the land has been divided into three parts. The end result was that no place in the land was more than a day’s journey from one of the cities of refuge.1
7 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.