Deuteronomy 19:6–12

⁶otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer ¹in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ²take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

⁷“Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself.’

⁸“If the Lord your God ^aenlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ¹promised to give your fathers—

⁹if you ¹carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, ^ato love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^bthen you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

¹⁰“So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^abloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹“But ^aif there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes ¹him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

¹²then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.