How do the refuge-city rules protect a person who kills unintentionally while still requiring judgment for murder?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A fugitive is protected from the slain person’s kinsman until the people judge the case. The law distinguishes murder from an act without hatred or enmity. A person judged innocent must remain in the refuge city until the high priest dies, while murder requires punishment based on witnesses, without payment in place of death.

Chapter breakdown

The Lord speaks to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho. Israel must give the Levites cities from its possessions to live in, with surrounding land for their cattle and beasts. The source gives the outward extent from the city walls as a thousand paces on every side. It also gives two thousand cubits toward the east, south, west toward the sea, and north, with the cities in the middle and the surrounding land outside. Both stated measurements are retained without adding a conversion or drawing an unstated layout. Six cities are to be set apart as refuges for those who have shed blood, with forty-two other cities: forty-eight in all, each with its surrounding land. Those with more land must give more cities, and those with less must give fewer, according to the extent of each inheritance.

The Lord again tells Moses to speak to Israel. When they cross the Jordan into Chanaan, they must determine the cities of refuge for people who have shed blood against their will. While a fugitive is there, the slain person’s kinsman may not kill him until he stands before the multitude and his case is judged. Three refuge cities must be beyond the Jordan and three in Chanaan. This protection is for Israelites, strangers, and sojourners—people staying among them—who have shed blood unintentionally.

If someone strikes a man with iron and the man dies, the striker is guilty of murder and must die. If someone throws a stone and the struck man dies, the same punishment applies. If a man dies after being struck with wood, his blood is to be avenged by the blood of the one who struck him. The slain person’s kinsman must kill the murderer when he catches him. The law also names pushing someone through hatred, throwing something with ill intent, or striking an enemy with the hand so that he dies. The striker is guilty of murder, and the slain person’s kinsman must kill him when he finds him.

If one of these acts happens by chance, without hatred or enmity, that must be proved in the people’s hearing, and the case debated between the striker and the next of kin. The innocent person is delivered from the avenger’s hand and brought back by judgment to the city where he fled. He must stay there until the death of the high priest anointed with holy oil. Challoner’s note separately says this mystically signified that our deliverance would be effected by the death of Christ, the high priest and anointed of God. The note supplies that spiritual interpretation; the verses state the hearing, judgment, and required stay.

If the person described here is found outside the limits of the appointed cities and the avenger of blood kills him, the avenger is not guilty. The reason given is that the fugitive should have stayed in the city until the high priest’s death. After that death, the manslayer may return to his own country. These provisions are to be perpetual, an ordinance in all Israel’s dwellings.

A murderer is to be punished on the evidence of witnesses. No one may be condemned on one man’s evidence alone. No money may be taken from someone guilty of blood; he must die without delay. Those who are banished or fugitives may by no means return to their own cities before the high priest dies. This last clause gives a return-home ban without naming money as its subject.

The Lord commands Israel not to defile the land where it lives. The blood of the innocent stains it, and it cannot otherwise be cleansed of that blood except by the blood of the one who shed another’s blood. In this way the possession is to be cleansed, with the Lord abiding among the people. He declares that he is the Lord who dwells among the children of Israel. These are the Lord’s commands to Moses; the chapter does not narrate their later delivery or implementation.

The story inside

The refuge rule has more than one stage. Entering the city prevents the next of kin from killing the fugitive before a public judgment. That hearing must distinguish the cases the law calls murder from an act that occurred without hatred or enmity. If the person is innocent under the stated rule, the judgment returns him to the refuge city. It does not immediately release him home. He must remain until the high priest’s death, and leaving the city earlier exposes him to the avenger without guilt falling on that avenger. The same chapter requires witnesses, rejects condemnation on a single witness, forbids taking money from one guilty of blood, and separately forbids a fugitive’s early return. These are distinct conditions, not a narrated trial or evidence of how earlier societies dealt with killing.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Refuge comes before judgment. The next of kin cannot kill the fugitive while he is in the city until he has stood before the people and his cause has been judged.
2
An innocent finding does not mean immediate return home. The person is brought back to the refuge city and must stay until the anointed high priest dies; the law states what happens if he leaves its limits earlier.
3
Keep the safeguards and penalties separate. Witnesses are required and one witness is insufficient; money cannot replace the death of one guilty of blood; a fugitive cannot return to his own city before the high priest’s death.

Test your recall

Why is the avenger not guilty under the stated rule if he kills the fugitive outside the refuge city before the high priest dies?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 18357–18390
Numbers Chapter 35 Cities are appointed for the Levites. Of which six are to be the cities of refuge. 35:1. And the Lord spoke these things also to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, over against Jericho: 35:2. Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites out of their possessions, 35:3. Cities to dwell in, and their suburbs round about: that they may abide in the towns, and the suburbs may be for their cattle and beasts: 35:4. Which suburbs shall reach from the walls of the cities outward, a thousand paces on every side: 35:5. Toward the east shall be two thousand cubits: and toward the south in like manner shall be two thousand cubits: toward the sea also, which looketh to the west, shall be the same extent: and the north side shall be bounded with the like limits. And the cities shall be in the midst, and the suburbs without. 35:6. And among the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, six shall be separated for refuge to fugitives, that he who hath shed blood may flee to them: and besides these there shall be other forty-two cities, 35:7. That is, in all forty-eight with their suburbs. 35:8. And of these cities which shall be given out of the possessions of the children of Israel, from them that have more, more shall be taken: and from them that have less, fewer. Each shall give towns to the Levites according to the extent of their inheritance.
Lines 18392–18412
35:9. The Lord said to Moses: 35:10. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have passed over the Jordan into the land of Chanaan, 35:11. Determine what cities shall be for the refuge of fugitives, who have shed blood against their will. 35:12. And when the fugitive shall be in them, the kinsman of him that is slain may not have power to kill him, until he stand before the multitude, and his cause be judged. 35:13. And of those cities, that are separated for the refuge of fugitives, 35:14. Three shall be beyond the Jordan, and three in the land of Chanaan, 35:15. As well for the children of Israel as for strangers and sojourners, that he may flee to them, who hath shed blood against his will.
Lines 18414–18431
35:16. If any man strike with iron, and he die that was struck: he shall be guilty of murder, and he himself shall die. 35:17. If he throw a stone, and he that is struck die: he shall be punished in the same manner. 35:18. If he that is struck with wood die: he shall be revenged by the blood of him that struck him. 35:19. The kinsman of him that was slain, shall kill the murderer: as soon as he apprehendeth him, he shall kill him. 35:20. If through hatred any one push a man, or fling any thing at him with ill design: 35:21. Or being his enemy, strike him with his hand, and he die: the striker shall be guilty of murder: the kinsman of him that was slain as soon as he findeth him, shall kill him.
Lines 18433–18447
35:22. But if by chance medley, and without hatred, 35:23. And enmity, he do any of these things, 35:24. And this be proved in the hearing of the people, and the cause be debated between him that struck, and the next of kin: 35:25. The innocent shall be delivered from the hand of the revenger, and shall be brought back by sentence into the city, to which he had fled, and he shall abide there until the death of the high priest, that is anointed with the holy oil. Until the death, etc.... This mystically signified that our deliverance was to be effected by the death of Christ, the high priest and the anointed of God.
Lines 18449–18460
35:26. If the murderer be found without the limits of the cities that are appointed for the banished, 35:27. And be struck by him that is the avenger of blood: he shall not be guilty that killed him. 35:28. For the fugitive ought to have stayed in the city until the death of the high priest: and after he is dead, then shall the manslayer return to his own country. 35:29. These things shall be perpetual, and for an ordinance in all your dwellings.
Lines 18462–18469
35:30. The murderer shall be punished by witnesses: none shall be condemned upon the evidence of one man. 35:31. You shall not take money of him that is guilty of blood, but he shall die forthwith. 35:32. The banished and fugitives before the death of the high priest may by no means return into their own cities.
Lines 18471–18478
35:33. Defile not the land of your habitation, which is stained with the blood of the innocent: neither can it otherwise be expiated, but by his blood that hath shed the blood of another. 35:34. And thus shall your possession be cleansed, myself abiding with you. For I am the Lord that dwell among the children of Israel.