that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and did not hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
For a Topheth is prepared of old, yea, it is made ready for the king. He has made it deep and large. The pile of it is fire and much wood. The breath of LORD kindles it, like a stream of brimstone.
In times past, even when Saul was king, it was thou who led out and brought in Israel. And LORD thy God said to thee, Thou shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and thou shall be ruler over my people Israel.
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near to it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go, for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
Lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and smite him mortally, whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he did not hate him in time past.
Thou shall prepare for thee the way, and divide the borders of thy land, which LORD thy God causes thee to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.
as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the helve, and lands upon his neighbor, so that he dies, he shall flee to on
Then she said, I pray thee, let the king remember LORD thy God, that the avenger of blood not destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As LORD lives, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.