Numbers 35:9-34

Conditions Limiting the Privilege of Sanctuary. Anciently the holiness of a sanctuary extended to all who came in contact with it, so that the right of asylum was liable to be abused; but by this law protection at a city of refuge was to be refused to those homicides who in the judgment of the community, on the evidence of two witnesses, were guilty of murder, as inferred from (a) the existence of previous enmity or evidence of premeditation, (b) the use of a murderous weapon. Those who were guilty of manslaughter only (see Deuteronomy 19:4 f.) were safe within the city during the lifetime of the high priest: after his death they ceased to be liable to vengeance. Though the law promoted justice by discriminating between the intentional and the unintentional homicide, it still left the punishment of the former to private revenge instead of committing it to the community.