Numbers 35:11

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.

Exodus 21:13

21:13 But if he does not do it with premeditation, ¹  but it happens by accident, ²  then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

Deuteronomy 19:5

19:5 Suppose he goes with someone else ³  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ⁴  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ⁵  from the handle and strikes ⁶  his fellow worker ⁷  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ⁸  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ⁹ 

Joshua 20:3

20:3 Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; ¹⁰  these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood.

Joshua 20:5

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. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “if he does not lie in wait” (NASB similar).

² tn Heb “and God brought into his hand.” The death is unintended, its circumstances outside human control.

³ tn Heb “his neighbor” (so NAB, NIV); NASB “his friend.”

⁴ tn Heb “and he raises his hand with the iron.”

⁵ tn Heb “the iron slips off.”

⁶ tn Heb “finds.”

⁷ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person responsible for his friend’s death) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “and live.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “so that the one who kills, taking life accidentally without knowledge, may flee there.”

¹¹ tn Heb “for without knowledge he killed his neighbor, and he was not hating him prior to that.”