<P> The Cities of Refuge were six Levitical towns in the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah in which the perpetrators of accidental manslaughter could claim the right of asylum . Maimonides, invoking talmudic literature, expands the city of refuge count to all 48 Levitical cities . Outside of these cities, blood vengeance against such perpetrators was allowed by law . The Bible names the six cities as being cities of refuge: Golan, Ramoth, and Bosor, on the east of the Jordan River, and Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron on the western side . </P> <P> In the Priestly Code, the regulations concerning the cities of refuge state that, once he had claimed asylum, a perpetrator had to be taken from the city and put on trial; if the trial found that the perpetrator was innocent of murder, then the perpetrator had to be returned under guard (for their own protection) to the city in which they had claimed asylum . This law code treats blood money as an unacceptable device that would compound the crime, insisting that atonement can only be made by blood . </P>

How many cities of refuge were the israelites to form