⁴² Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive:

³ You are to determine the distances^[a] and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.^[b]

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:

⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger^[a] might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,^[b] since he did not previously hate his neighbor.

³ so that a person who kills someone unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.^{(A) 4} When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before^[a] the elders of that city, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them.^{(B) 5} And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand the one who committed manslaughter over to him, for he killed his neighbor accidentally and did not hate him beforehand. ⁶ He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest serving at that time.^(C) Then the one who committed manslaughter may return home to his own city from which he fled.”