25
and the community is to save the killer from the next-of-kin avenger. The community is to return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he is to live there until the cohen hagadol, who was anointed with the holy oil, dies.
26
But if the killer ever goes beyond the limits of the city of refuge he fled to,
27
and the next-of-kin avenger finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger kills the killer, he will not be guilty of the man's blood;
28
because he must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the cohen hagadol. But after the death of the cohen hagadol the killer may return to the land he owns.
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.
34
No, you are not to defile the land in which you live and in which I live; for I, ADONAI, live among the people of Isra'el.'"