And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the
hand
of the avenger of blood
Put him under the care of proper persons, to conduct him to one
of the cities of refuge, or put him in the way to it; and
restrain the avenger of blood from pursuing him, until such time
that it may be judged he is safe arrived there:
and the congregation shall restore him to the city of
refuge, whither
he was fled;
so that it seems by this, when one had been guilty of
manslaughter, and fled to one of the cities of refuge, he might
be taken from thence and had before a court of justice, and there
take his trial; and if it appeared that the fact was committed by
him, ignorantly, unawares, and without design, then he was
returned to his city of refuge; but, if otherwise, he was put to
death, notwithstanding he had fled thither; and so it is said in
the Misnah F20, that
``at first, or formerly, one that killed another ignorantly or presumptuously, they sent him before to one of the cities of refuge, and the sanhedrim sent and fetched him from thence: he who was condemned to death by the court, they slew him; he that was not condemned was dismissed; he that was condemned to banishment they returned him to his place, according to ( Numbers 35:25 ) .''and he shall abide in it, unto the death of the high priest, which was
``he whose cause is finished (or his case determined in a court of judicature), and there is no high priest; and he that slays an high priest, or an high priest slays another, he never goes out, no not so much as to bear testimony in any cause, and even in what the congregation has need of him, but there are his dwelling, his death, and his burial.''