^17 [a]Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death;^(A)

¹⁵ These six cities will serve as places of asylum for the Israelites, and for the resident or transient aliens among them, so that anyone who has killed a person inadvertently may flee there.

Murder and Manslaughter. ^16 [a]If someone strikes another with an iron instrument and causes death, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death.^{(A) 17} If someone strikes another with a death-dealing stone in the hand and death results, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if someone strikes another with a death-dealing club in the hand and death results, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood is the one who will kill the murderer, putting the individual to death on sight.

²⁰ If someone pushes another out of hatred, or throws something from an ambush, and death results,^{(B) 21} or strikes another with the hand out of enmity and death results, the assailant must be put to death as a murderer. The avenger of blood will kill the murderer on sight.

^22 (C)However, if someone pushes another without malice aforethought, or without lying in ambush throws some object at another, ²³ or without seeing drops upon another some death-dealing stone and death results, although there was neither enmity nor malice— ²⁴ then the community will judge between the assailant and the avenger of blood in accordance with these norms. ²⁵ The community will deliver the homicide from the avenger of blood and the community will return the homicide to the city of asylum where the latter had fled;^(D) and the individual will stay there until the death of the high priest who has been anointed with sacred oil. ²⁶ If the homicide leaves at all the bounds of the city of asylum to which flight had been made, ²⁷ and is found by the avenger of blood beyond the bounds of the city of asylum, and the avenger of blood kills the homicide, the avenger incurs no bloodguilt; ²⁸ for the homicide was required to stay in the city of asylum until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the homicide return to the land of the homicide’s possession.

²⁹ This is the statute for you throughout all your generations, wherever you live, for rendering judgment.

Cities of Refuge. ^41 (A)Then Moses set apart three cities in the region east of the Jordan, ⁴² to which a homicide might flee who killed a neighbor unintentionally, where there had been no hatred previously, so that the killer might flee to one of these cities and live:

² you shall set apart three cities^[a] in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess. ³ You shall measure the distances and divide into three regions the land of which the Lord, your God, is giving you possession, so that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.

⁴ This is the case of a homicide who may take refuge there and live: when someone strikes down a neighbor unintentionally and not out of previous hatred. ⁵ For example, if someone goes with a neighbor to a forest to cut wood, wielding an ax to cut down a tree, and its head flies off the handle and hits the neighbor a mortal blow, such a person may take refuge in one of these cities and live.