Numbers 35:11

¹³but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen; then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.

⁶“The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

²“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,

¹When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ²you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess. ³You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there. ⁴This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him in time past— ⁵as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while hot anger is in his heart and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn’t hate him in time past. ⁷Therefore I command you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ⁸If the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; ⁹and if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, in addition to these three. ¹⁰This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you. ¹¹But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; ¹²then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ¹³Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.

⁴²that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

²²“‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, ²³or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him so that he died, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm, ²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. ²⁵The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.