Deuteronomy 19:4

4 "Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

Deuteronomy 19:4 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 19:4

And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither,
that he may live
It was not any slayer that might have protection in these cities, but such who were thus and thus circumstanced, or whose case was as follows:

whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly;
without intention, as the Targum of Jonathan, did not design it, but was done by him unawares:

whom he hated not in time past;
had never shown by words or deeds that he had any hatred of him or enmity to him three days ago; so that if there were no marks of hatred, or proofs of it three days before this happened, it was reckoned an accidental thing, and not done on purpose, as this phrase is usually interpreted; see ( Exodus 21:29 ) .

Deuteronomy 19:4 In-Context

2 you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

3 You are to determine the distances and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.

4 "Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

5 If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die, since he did not previously hate his neighbor.