Numbers 35:11-12

35:11 you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee. 35:12 And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community.

Proverbs 6:5

6:5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, ¹ 

and like a bird from the trap ²  of the fowler.

Isaiah 2:20

2:20 At that time ³  men will throw

their silver and gold idols,

which they made for themselves to worship, ⁴ 

into the caves where rodents and bats live, ⁵ 

Matthew 24:16-18

24:16 then those in Judea must flee ⁶  to the mountains. 24:17 The one on the roof ⁷  must not come down ⁸  to take anything out of his house, 24:18 and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

Hebrews 6:18

6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him ⁹  may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

¹ tn Heb “from the hand.” Most translations supply “of the hunter.” The word “hand” can signify power, control; so the meaning is that of a gazelle freeing itself from a snare or a trap that a hunter set.

² tc Heb “hand” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). Some mss and versions have it as “trap,” which may very well represent an interpretation too.

³ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

⁴ tn Or “bow down to.”

⁵ tn Heb “to the shrews and to the bats.” On the meaning of חֲפַרְפָּרָה (khafarparah, “shrew”), see HALOT 341 s.v. חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The BHS text as it stands (לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת, perot lakhpor), makes no sense. Based on Theodotion’s transliteration and a similar reading in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, most scholars suggest that the MT mistakenly divided a noun (a hapax legomenon) that should be translated “moles,” “shrews,” or “rodents.”

⁶ sn Fleeing to the mountains is a key OT image: Gen 19:17; Judg 6:2; Isa 15:5; Jer 16:16; Zech 14:5.

⁷ sn On the roof. Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

⁸ sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There will be no time to come down from the roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.

⁹ tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.