Numbers 35:19

35:19 The avenger ¹  of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him.

Numbers 35:27

35:27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood,

Deuteronomy 19:4-10

19:4 Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ²  if he has accidentally killed another ³  without hating him at the time of the accident. ⁴  19:5 Suppose he goes with someone else ⁵  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ⁶  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ⁷  from the handle and strikes ⁸  his fellow worker ⁹  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ¹⁰  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ¹¹  19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, ¹²  and kill him, ¹³  though this is not a capital case ¹⁴  since he did not hate him at the time of the accident. 19:7 Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. 19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors ¹⁵  and gives you all the land he pledged to them, ¹⁶  19:9 and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹⁷  I am giving ¹⁸  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ¹⁹  to these three. 19:10 You must not shed innocent blood ²⁰  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ²¹ 

Joshua 20:3-6

20:3 Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; ²²  these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood. 20:4 The one who committed manslaughter ²³  should escape to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the city gate, and present his case to the leaders of that city. ²⁴  They should then bring him into the city, give him a place to stay, and let him live there. ²⁵  20:5 When the avenger of blood comes after him, they must not hand over to him the one who committed manslaughter, for he accidentally killed his fellow man without premeditation. ²⁶  20:6 He must remain ²⁷  in that city until his case is decided by the assembly ²⁸  and the high priest dies. ²⁹  Then the one who committed manslaughter may return home to the city from which he escaped.” ³⁰ 

¹ tn The participle גֹּאֵל (go’el) is the one who protects the family by seeking vengeance for a crime. This is the same verb used for levirate marriages and other related customs.

² tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”

³ tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”

⁴ tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”

⁵ tn Heb “his neighbor” (so NAB, NIV); NASB “his friend.”

⁶ tn Heb “and he raises his hand with the iron.”

⁷ tn Heb “the iron slips off.”

⁸ tn Heb “finds.”

⁹ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person responsible for his friend’s death) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “and live.”

¹² tn Heb “and overtake him, for the road is long.”

¹³ tn Heb “smite with respect to life,” that is, fatally.

¹⁴ tn Heb “no judgment of death.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.

¹⁷ tn Heb “all this commandment.” This refers here to the entire covenant agreement of the Book of Deuteronomy as encapsulated in the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

¹⁸ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today.”

¹⁹ sn You will add three more cities. Since these are alluded to nowhere else and thus were probably never added, this must be a provision for other cities of refuge should they be needed (cf. v. 8). See P. C. Craigie, Deuteronomy (NICOT), 267.

²⁰ tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).

²¹ tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”

²² tn Heb “so that the one who kills, taking life accidentally without knowledge, may flee there.”

²³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the one who accidentally kills another, cf. v. 2) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ tn Heb “and speak into the ears of the elders of that city his words.”

²⁵ tn Heb “and they should gather him into the city to themselves, give to him a place, and he will live with them.”

²⁶ tn Heb “for without knowledge he killed his neighbor, and he was not hating him prior to that.”

²⁷ tn Or “live.”

²⁸ tn Heb “until he stands before the assembly for judgment.”

²⁹ tn Heb “until the death of the high priest who is in those days.”

³⁰ tn Heb “may return and enter his city and his house, the city from which he escaped.”