Numbers 35:12 Cross References - ISV

¹² They are to serve as cities of refuge from a blood avenger in order to keep the inadvertent killer from dying until he has stood trial in the presence of the community.

¹⁹ The blood avenger himself is to execute the murderer. When he meets him, the blood avenger is to put him to death.

²⁴ then the community is to judge between the inadvertent killer and the blood avenger, following these ordinances. ²⁵ The community is to release the inadvertent killer from the blood avenger and return him to the town of refuge where he had fled. He is to live there until the High Priest dies, who will have anointed him with holy oil. ²⁶ But if the inadvertent killer leaves the town of refuge where he had fled ²⁷ and the blood avenger finds him outside the town of refuge where he had fled and kills him, the blood avenger is not to be found guilty of murder.

⁶ While the distance may be great and the angry avenger pursues the killer, he may overtake him and kill him, in which case there will be no justice in his death, because he did not hate his friend previously.

¹¹ Refuse Cold-Blooded Murderers“However, if a person hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, and attacks him so that he dies, and then he flees to one of those cities, ¹² then the elders of his own city shall send for him, remove him from there, and deliver him to the related avenger for execution.

³ so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally and without premeditation may run there and be protected from closely related avengers. ⁴ He may run to one of those cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate, and tell his side of the story to the elders of the city. They are to bring him inside the city with them and provide him a place to live among them. ⁵ Now if the closely related avenger pursues him, then they are not to hand the killer over to him, because he killed his neighbor without premeditation and without hating him beforehand. ⁶ He is to live in that city until he stands trial before the community, until the death of the one who is high priest at that time. Then the killer may return to his own city and to his own home, that is, to the city from which he fled.”

⁹ These were appointed to be cities for all the Israelis and for the foreigner who lives among them, so that whoever kills anyone unintentionally may run there and not die at the hands of a closely related avenger until he stands for trial before the community.

⁷ Now please pay attention closely! My whole family is attacking your humble servant! They’re saying, ‘Turn over the one who attacked his brother and we’ll put him to death in retribution for his brother, whose life he took. That way, we’ll kill the heir also!’ They’re going to extinguish the only light left in my family, leaving my late husband neither an ongoing name nor a survivor on the face of the earth!”