The elaborately careful specification of cases which gave the fugitive a right to shelter in the city is set forth at length in Numbers 35:15-24, and Deuteronomy 19:4-13. The broad principle is there laid down that the cities were open for one who slew a man unwittingly.' But the plea of not intending to slay was held to be negative, not only if intention could be otherwise shown but if the weapon used was such as would probably kill; such, for instance, as an instrument of iron,' or a stone, or a weapon of wood, whereby a man may die.' If we do what is likely to have a given result, we are responsible for that result, should it come about, even though we did not consciously seek to bring it. That is plain common sense. I never thought the house would catch fire' is no defense from the guilt of burning it down, if we fired a revolver into a powder barrel. Further, if the fatal blow was struck in hatred,' or if the slayer had lain in ambush to catch his victim, he was not allowed shelter. These careful definitions freed the cities from becoming nests of desperate criminals, as the sanctuaries' of the Middle Ages in Europe became. They were not harbors for the guilty, but asylums for the innocent.
