“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:

Godly people have vanished from the land;
there is no one upright among the people.
All of them wait in ambush to shed blood;
they hunt each other with a net.

God

so they said to him, “Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’” Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.

The king replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, do we agree on anything? He curses me this way because the Lord

told him, ‘Curse David!’ Therefore, who can say, ‘Why did you do that?’”

But this is not what he intends;
this is not what he plans.
It is his intent to destroy
and to cut off many nations.

I will appoint

designate cities to serve as cities of refuge for you, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east.

“When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land He is giving you, so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses,

“Tell the Israelites: Select your cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,

General references

“But if anyone suddenly pushes a person without hostility or throws any object at him without malicious intent

‘The one who secretly kills his neighbor is cursed.’
And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’