Numbers 35:32

32 Nor shall you accept ransom for one who has fled to a city of refuge, enabling the fugitive to return to live in the land before the death of the high priest.

Numbers 35:32 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 35:32

Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled
to the city of his refuge
Though for killing a man unawares:

that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the
priest;
the high priest; such a man's liberty was not to be purchased with money, nor even his life to be bought off, should he be taken without his city; a great ransom could not deliver him from the avenger, because he was guilty of this law, which so wisely and mercifully provided for him; and consequently guilty also of great ingratitude to God, as well as of a breach of his law, and of disrespect to his high priest, under whom he was protected.

Numbers 35:32 In-Context

30 If anyone kills another, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness.

31 Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is subject to the death penalty; a murderer must be put to death.

32 Nor shall you accept ransom for one who has fled to a city of refuge, enabling the fugitive to return to live in the land before the death of the high priest.

33 You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

34 You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the Israelites.