Numbers 35:31

31 Also, you are not to accept a ransom in lieu of the life of a murderer condemned to death; rather, he must be put to death.

Numbers 35:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 35:31

Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a
murderer
Though he would give all his wealth and substance, all his estates and possessions, and whatever he is worth in the world; for all that a man has he will give for his life; but these are not to be taken, nor anything, and everything his friends may offer for him; all is to be rejected, the life of such a man is not to be saved on any consideration:

which is guilty of death;
as he is who kills a man willingly and purposely; but one may be guilty of killing another, and yet not be deserving of death, when it is done ignorantly and accidentally with respect to him, for which reason this clause is added: but he shall be surely put to death; by the order of the civil magistrate; and if this is not done either through want of evidence, or the fault of the judge, or the criminal clemency of the chief governor, God sooner or later will take vengeance on such a person.

Numbers 35:31 In-Context

29 These things shall constitute your standard for judgment through all your generations, wherever you live.

30 "'If anyone kills someone, the murderer is to be put to death upon the testimony of witnesses; but the testimony of only one witness will not suffice to cause a person to be put to death.

31 Also, you are not to accept a ransom in lieu of the life of a murderer condemned to death; rather, he must be put to death.

32 Likewise, you are not to accept for someone who has fled to his city of refuge a ransom that would allow him to return to his land before the death of the cohen.

33 In this way you will not defile the land in which you are living. For blood defiles the land, and in this land no atonement can be made for the blood shed in it except the blood of him who shed it.