Deuteronomy 19:5

New American Bible - revised edition

For example, if someone goes with a neighbor to a forest to cut wood, wielding an ax to cut down a tree, and its head flies off the handle and hits the neighbor a mortal blow, such a person may take refuge in one of these cities and live.

Cross References

2 Kings 6:4

So he went with them, and when they arrived at the Jordan they began to cut down trees.

Proverbs 27:12

The astute see an evil and hide; the naive continue on and pay the penalty.

Isaiah 32:2

Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the rain. They will be like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a great rock in a parched land.

Numbers 35:25

The community will deliver the homicide from the avenger of blood and the community will return the homicide to the city of asylum where the latter had fled; and the individual will stay there until the death of the high priest who has been anointed with sacred oil.

Deuteronomy 19:4

This is the case of a homicide who may take refuge there and live: when someone strikes down a neighbor unintentionally and not out of previous hatred.

Deuteronomy 19:6

Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood might in hot anger pursue, overtake, and strike the killer dead, even though that one does not deserve the death penalty since there had been no previous hatred;