²you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God is giving to you to take possession of it. ³You shall prepare the roads^b for yourselves, and you shall divide the regions of your land into thirds that Yahweh your God gives you as a possession, so that it will be available for any manslayer to flee there.^c

⁴“Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live there who has killed his neighbor unintentionally,^d and he did not hate him previously.^e ⁵For example,^f when somebody goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and the iron head slips from the handle of the tool and strikes his neighbor and he dies, then he may flee to one of these cities, and so he may live. ⁶He does this lest the avenger of blood might pursue after the killer, because he is hot with anger^g and he overtakes him, because it is a long distance to the city of refuge, and so he kills him,^h but he did not deserve a death sentence,ⁱ because he was not hating him before.^j

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Footnotes

bHebrew “road”
cLiterally “it shall be to flee there all/anyone killing”
dLiterally “with no knowledge”
eLiterally “from yesterday and the day before”
fLiterally “And as”
gLiterally “is hot his heart”
hLiterally “he strikes him down as to his life/soul”
iLiterally “for him there was not a judgment of death”
jLiterally “from yesterday and the day before”