Deuteronomy 19:4–10

⁴“Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: ⁵If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger ^pmight pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die, ^qsince he did not previously hate his neighbor. ⁷This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ⁸If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give them— ⁹provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in His ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ^r