Joshua 20:5

5 And if the avenger of blood shall pursue him, then they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand; because he smote his neighbor ignorantly, and had not hated him before.

Joshua 20:5 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 20:5

And if the avenger of blood pursue after him
To the city of refuge, whither he is fled, and demand him:

then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hands;
to be slain by him, but shall protect him:

because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not
beforetime; (See Gill on Numbers 35:22), (See Gill on Numbers 35:23), and (See Gill on Deuteronomy 19:6).

Joshua 20:5 In-Context

3 That the slayer that killeth [any] person unawares [and] ignorantly, may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

4 And when he that doth flee to one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city to them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.

5 And if the avenger of blood shall pursue him, then they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand; because he smote his neighbor ignorantly, and had not hated him before.

6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he shall stand before the congregation for judgment, [and] until the death of the high-priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city from whence he fled.

7 And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, (which [is] Hebron) in the mountain of Judah.